Cataclysmic
by DemonoftheRoundTable
Summary: A Cataclysmic earthquake struck a nearby city, and the Grimm who lived at and around the epicenter lost their homes. In search of a new nest, they strike the city during a rescue effort. Team RWBY, JNPR, and CVFY are sent to dispatch these Grimm and rescue as many survivors as possible. Ratings may change as the story goes along.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Ruby POV

Where... where am I?

I awoke in a daze, my world spinning, and my eyes blurry. I don't know where I am, nor how I got here... think, Ruby think!

I remember... an earthquake, Grimm attacks, we got separated... wait, we? Yes, we, my team... my friends. Where are they?

"Ruby!"

Well, I guess that answers that. But who said my name, and where is she? I feel a hand on my shoulder, turning me onto my back, and see 2 people. My sister, Yang, and our friend Pyhrra. They look worried, but why?

"Ruby are you ok? Say something!"

"I'm fine, we need to get out of here, now!" I hurried to my feet but my legs gave way, I screamed in pain.

"You are nowhere close to ok. Yang, you carry her to the Bullhead, ill cover you, go!" Pyhrra said

"Ok," Yang replied, lifting me off my feet, "Pyhrra, be careful!"

"Aren't I always?" Pyhrra replied with a smirk. Then she ran off, joining Weiss and Blake as they fought off the Grimm that threatened the remaining civilians.

Oh God what happened here?! Why is everything in the shit so soon? Let's see, earthquake, Grimm attack, wait threes a few steps missing. Yes, Ozpin sent us and a few other teams to help with rescue. Then an aftershock, THEN we were separated. Come on, focus, you're getting there.

Yang put me down near the civilians that were waiting for an evac ship to arrive. "How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I can kinda see clearer, I think. MY world is spinning as much now. Maybe I can help you guys." Trying to stand, I reached for Crescent Rose, my gun, only to be brought down by the pain I forgot about.

"Yeah, I don't think you can stand, let us handle this" Yang said.

"well I'm still going to help," I told her, "I won't let you fight alone."

"I'm not sure if you can, your scythe is damaged, isn't it?"

Oh yeah... that was a thing. But how did it get damaged, and what...

"YANG! GET OVER HERE NOW!" screamed a familiar voice... but who? Oh yeah, that Weiss' voice. How could I forget that scream?

"Ok, just hold on!" Yang screamed back, "I'm going back to help them, don't stand up if you know what's good for you." She said, both in a threatening and caring tone. "But if you can help, then by all means start shooting!" She told me. Then in an instant she was gone, jumping back into the frey.

Ok, I have a minute. What happened here?! What can I remember and why can't I remember everything?! Let's see, what do we know? Earthquake, we got sent to help a rescue effort, Grimm attacked, but that wasn't the reason why we got separated... an aftershock happened, right beneath our feet. The city got decimated. That how, but how did we get to here? No wait, I remember now:

We had an in-flight briefing on our way here, this spot was the rendezvous point for all teams, this is the last evac sight. But then why haven't we left, are we missing something.. or someone? I turned around from my sitting position that yang put me in, and I see Weiss, Blake, Yang, all fighting on one end of the street.

Looking over at the other end, I see all of Team JNPR, Jaune, Nora, Pyhrra, Ren, all fighting off Grimm. But there are others with them... TEAM CFVY! They were with us too! They're helping our JNPR on the west side of the street... threes too many there. I need to help!

Picking up my gun, I ready up, only to realize... threes a dent in the nozzle... Yang was right, I can't shoot! And my leg is injured so... there's pretty much nothing I can do to help. DAMMIT! How did every little thing go wrong?! This was supposed to be a 'go in, find survivors, kill Grimm, get out' deal, so how did this go wrong?!

As I continue my to-myself rant, I notice more movement from my team. They were with... who? I couldn't tell from here but they were with another hunter team, this one wasn't first years, I didn't recognize them. no they came with us on the bullhead, they were there when we got dropped off. They were fighting with my team.

As I watch, the pain that I've been trying to ignore finally catches up with me. I look down at my leg and notice an open wound. I try to channel my aura and heal it, but nothing happens. Then, another familiar voice.

"Your not going to be able to heal yourself with a concussion." I turned around to see who that was that just spoke, and it was Jaune. He was beat up pretty bad, but still holding his own. "Pyhrra told me to come and heal your leg so you can get back in the fight. She knew it must have been killing you to watch us and not help in any way."

I smirked, "Thank god, I was getting bored." Jaune laughed and put his hand just over my leg were the wound was. "Stay still," he said, "this might sting a little."

If only he knew how much it 'stung'. Burned was more like it, but in an instant it was done and the pain was non-existent. I looked up at him, "So is that your semblance?" I asked, honest curiosity in my voice. "I don't know" He replied, "even if it's not, it's still really useful. Now you still have a concussion, so don't be running into the fight." Well, he was right. He could be a good medic if he wasn't trying to be a hunter.

Thanking him, I put Crescent Rose into gun form and starting shooting away, taking a few minutes to regain composure. Man, screw concussions. As I started shooting, I noticed Yang came back. She kneeled down beside me, she was tired, and may even be mad... Please don't be made at me.

"Didn't I tell you to stay off this leg," She said, concern and anger both in her voice.

"Yeah," I returned, "But when do I listen to you in a fight?" She didn't like that, so I explained what Jaune did.

"Yang I know you would leave a fight just to yell at me, so why are you here?"

"Whelp... actually I'm out of ammo..." She said, ashamed of using so many rounds.

"And you came to tell me, why?" I asked, confused.

She smirked, and replied "Just hold still..." Then started digging through one of my pouches. I tried to turn around in protest of this, but then she pulled away with 2 belts of slugs in her hands. "I always hide something in these pouches of yours, little sister." She said with a smile, "They were always useful to me as well as you." Before I could yell at her, she left. Sighing I went back to shooting.

Something was still off, but I couldn't put my finger on it... uhg, I can't figure any of this out. Damn Concussions... what did I even do to get a concussion? I guess ill figure it out soon.

I reloaded my gun, and just thought to myself, everything was fine 3 days ago. We were just sitting through class, nothing was amiss. Nothing.

Just 3 days ago...


	2. Chapter 1: 3 Days Prior

3 Days Prior

Ruby POV

We sat in Professor Ports class, bored out of our skulls, as per usual. The teacher, if you want to call him that, had a strange obsession with stories... About himself. Stories of days past, that are just boring. I'm sure there's a lesson somewhere in his tales, the class does teach about Grimm anatomy, but I can't stay awake for too long to know. In this class, today, he actually cut his 'lecture' short.

"Ok class," he said, "I will leave you with the rest of class to do any kind of work you have, along with this classes assigned book work." A sigh of relief came from the class. I looked to my partner, Weiss, and noticed she had dozed off during class. At that same moment, my teammate Blake had also looked over. Our eyes met, and Blake knew what had to be done.

This was too good. Weiss was always yelling at me for sleeping during that class, and now it's my turn to get her. Blake pulled out her class book, as did I as well, we both stood up, lifted the books to our chests over the table, and counted.

"One... Two... THREE!" The books dropped, and slammed the table. Weiss instantly jumped with a yelp.

Blake and I looked at each other and laughed, throwing in a high-five. Yang found it amusing, as did Team JNPR, our friends. But Weiss... well, she found it to be... not so funny. She got up, stared me in the eyes, but before she could say whatever she was going to say, I stopped her.

"You fell asleep in class," I said. "And so we woke you up." I looked to Blake, who gave me an amused smirk. Weiss looked back to Blake and whispered "I'll get you back Belladonna, I swear it! And YOU!" She pointed to me. "What gives you the right to wake me in such a manner?!"

"What gives you the right to yell at me when I doze off in this class, when you just did the exact same thing, and I know you've done it many other times, so don't even try that!" I shot back instantly. Months of getting yelled at by her only led me to this moment, and boy did I enjoy it. She looked surprised by my comments, and sat back down in defeat. Yang shot me a high-five, pride ridden on her face. She taught me comebacks like that.

"So... What did I miss?" Weiss asked, trying to change the subject. Blake followed along, understanding that she wanted to move on from her defeat.

"We have the rest of class, which is basically 20 minutes to get any book work done in this class. The rest of the time is ours." Blake explained.

"Yeah, I may have the work done..." Yang said. Everyone instantly turned to her, with questioning looks on our faces. "He gave us the pages we had to answer, and I thought maybe ONCE I could actually do some work and not leave it to the last minute..." She explained "...Plus I got really bored of listening to that story, and didn't want a wakeup call by the books." She said. We nodded, accepting that answer.

"and how do we know the answers are right?" Weiss asked.

"Doubt me princess? When it comes to work, I can actually do things right, contrary to popular... sorry, YOUR thoughts of me."

I leaned in to Weiss, whispering "Don't doubt her, when she goes on a mission like that she does things right." I explained. Growing up with her, I know from experience... and many homework nights, that when she needs to find answers, she will.

Weiss accepted this answer, wanting to not believe it, but after looking over Yang's work, she found all answers to be correct.

"Ok, we have the answers, but we still have a major test to study for in Peach's class in two days, so... I will leave this choice to all of you," Weiss said, "We can use these last 15 minutes and study for it, or... we can do what we normally do and waste time."

We all thought for a moment, and in unison, claimed "Nah." Waste time it was.

For 15 minutes we sat and talked, along with Team JNPR, who had gotten a huge kick out of our shenanigans. The bell rang and that was our time to leave. Ports class was the last one for the day, so we all took some time to ourselves. Blake headed off to the Library, Weiss went to our dorm to study, Jaune and Pyhrra went to the roof. God only knows what they do up there, to be honest I don't want to find out. Ren and Nora stayed in their dorms, while Yang and I tried to figure out what to do.

"So..." Yang said, "What do you want to do?" She asked me.

"Well... We can go to the dorm and study with Weiss" I said. Yang didn't like the prospect of studying. "Ok, we can find Blake.?" I asked, Yang shook her head "No, she might get annoyed with us." Accepting that answer, I said "We can find Pyhrra and Jaune." Yang had a disgusted look on her face, "I don't even wanna know what those 2 do on the roof."

"Well, I know Ren and Nora are in their dorms, they won't want anyone in either..."

"Again, I don't even want to know what those 2 do in there..." Yang said.

"Pyhrra tells me that they don't do anything. They take their time and relax. Nora listens to music while Ren meditates." I explained.

Yang still didn't want to go, "I got a feeling they won't want us to join them." With that, we just decided to head to our halls rec room. The rec room was basically a lounge with a training floor, where we could spar or practice. We both took a seat at one of the vacant couches, and sat on either end of it. We turned the TV on to the news, where a breaking report came over the screen.

"BREAKING NEWS OUT OF THE CITY OF DIRECTUS!"

Yang and I looked at each other, with worried looks. She turned up the TV, as a reported was explaining:

"The City of Directus, located on the central eastern coast has reported a massive earthquake just off the coast. Initial Reports say it was a magnitude of 7.6. A tsunami warning has been issued, and many people are bracing. Luckily the city is on higher grounds and surrounded by mountains, which will protect it from any flood waters. Still, officials are taking all precautions."

I looked to Yang, who met my gazed. "Where have we heard of Directus?" I asked. The city sounded familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"We learned about it in Ooblecks History class, it was one of the few cities that stood after the invasion in the war 80 years ago." She explained.

I nodded, realizing what the city was. We had to do a whole report on it last month. The city has sturdy walls, and utilize the mountains both for defenses and for mining. There are tunnel systems all around the mountains, overlooking both the city and the ocean. Those bunkers are the reason the city didn't fall 80 years ago. People put faith into the walls, as they have only gotten stronger as time progressed.

We turned our attention back to the TV as the reported was finishing up: "Still, officials are concerned with the local fault line, as it has apparently been acting up in recent months. This is the 14th earthquake in 2 months, the 8th that registered higher than 6, according to officials. We will keep you updated on any new developments from Directus."

Yang turned off the TV, and looked at me. "Ok, we should get going." As if on cue, I there was a ping on my scroll. I pulled it out of my pocket. It was a message from Weiss, that read 'Get both you and your sister up here now!'. I looked to Yang, and said "I think Weiss is still mad about Ports class..."

"Well..." Yang said. "...We can either go back home and face the music, or we can avoid it as much as possible."

"Might as well face the music," I said "Lord knows it will only be louder the more we wait."

With that we headed off for the dorm. Noticing it was getting late. We could only dread what Weiss had in store for us. On our way back we met Blake, who had a similar message from Weiss on her scroll. That could only mean bad news, if she wanted all of us back at once:

An all night study session.

* * *

><p>So this is where I'm going to leave off for the night. I will try to update this story as much as possible. There are big things coming soon to this story, but I might only get a chance on the weekends (Friday through Sunday). But if I get a free moment I'll give you a new Chapter.<p>

Be sure to give me a review, tell me how I did and what i can fix (if anything.) And don't worry, to anyone who wants to see some world ending goodness, the Cataclysm comes soon.


	3. Chapter 2: All Night Never Mind

**All Night... Never mind**

**Yang POV**

Half way to our dorm we ran into Blake, who also had a message from Weiss. Dreading what the heiress had in store for us, we walked on. I could tell Ruby was still concerned for people in Directus. We had no affiliation with the city, no family, no friends there, but still, she always showed worry for people who were in danger. Even if she never met them, she wanted to help.

Lord knows if we were still on Patch, our home island, she would do anything and everything in her power to go to the city to help.

As we walked in to our dorm, we noticed Weiss was on her phone. We didn't know who she was talking to, but we had a feeling it was her father. Her voice wasn't shaky, but she did have some concern in her tone as she spoke.

"And we're sure everything is ok there?" We could hear someone talking on the other end. They weren't yelling, her phone's volume was just loud. "Ok, well are we going to get her out of there?" ... "Uh huh, ok. So long as she's safe... She is on her way home? Good. Ok daddy, I will." Well that answered that. Ruby Blake and I all looked at each other, then to Weiss, who had just finished her conversation. "Ok, I love you too... bye."

She noticed that we were staring.

"What?" She said. Ruby was the first to speak: "That was your dad?"

"Yes. There was an earthquake in a city that holds my Vale's HQ for my father's company. My sister was there visiting my uncle, I called my father to make sure she was safe."

Ruby and I looked at each other. my turn to speak. "You have a sister?"

"Yes... why?"

"No reason... was this city called Directus by chance?"

"Yes... Yes it was... how did you...?"

Ruby piped up "There was a news report that Yang and I saw... what's going to happen with your sister?"

"She's on her way back to Atlas, she's fine." Weiss answered. I thought of making a 'shaken up' pun, but then thought against it, Weiss was clearly worried for her sister, as I would be if I knew Ruby was caught in the middle of all of that.

Blake had enough of our conversation and decided to shoot to the point, "So why the urgent message?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah. It's about Peach's test in 2 days." Weiss answered, "Do any of you think we could study as a team?"

Ruby spoke, "Yeah, but we have a few days until then. We'll do an all night study session tomorrow night, that way the information would be more fresh in our minds." I liked this idea, Blake did too.

"Ok," Weiss responded, "All nighter tomorrow, that seems like a better idea then doing it today."

"Besides," I said just as Ruby and Blake went to their respective beds, "We have Goodwitch's class tomorrow, and we can't go in tired. Knowing our luck she'll call us out to fight a good team." She did that before.

Many times have team JNPR and RWBY gone in to do all night study sessions together, forgetting that we would have combat training with Goodwitch the next day. If she saw anyone sluggish or tired, she would call them out to fight a well-rested, ready-to-fight individual, or have it be team vs. team... neither are very pleasant.

The rest of the night was basically a lazy night for us. It was 9:00 pm, and no one wanted to do anything. Ruby listened to hear music while working on Crescent Rose, Blake read one of her many books, Weiss studied, and as for me? I had... special plans to make.

Ruby's birthday fell on a Saturday this year... to be specific, this Saturday, 4 days from now. I wanted to plan a surprise party for her. Blake, Weiss, and all of Team JNPR was in on it. It was going to be Blake's job to keep Ruby distracted in town while the remaining 6 of us work on the dorm, readying it or a party. I have her gift all set... I just need it to be delivered.

It wasn't long before the team had fallen asleep. I didn't even realize how late it was. I looked over at Ruby, noticing her music was still on. I crept over to her bunk, careful not to awaken my teammates, and turned it off. I also took any and all paperwork off of her bed. She was known to toss and turn in her sleep, with papers on the bed. Those papers never make it to the morning.

I then went to sleep, knowing full well that Professor Goodwitch would most certainly call on me if I wasn't as rested as needed.

**The Next Day: 1 Hour Before Goodwitch's Class**

Both Team's RWBY and JNPR sat in the cafeteria, being sure to eat a light lunch. If any of us went down into the ring to fight, and had _too _much to eat... well, we all know what that can lead to.

As Nora began to regale us with another one of her, as Ren puts it, recurring dream, I noticed Weiss was on her Scroll, looking worriedly at something. All I could read from my end of the table was 'Breaking Story'. I knew what the story was about without reading it. Ruby also noticed her partners worried look, and asked, "Weiss, what's wrong?"

Weiss could only respond: "There was another earthquake near Directus, just an hour ago..." I wasn't surprised by this, we learned at Signal that an active tectonic plate will spawn earthquakes constantly, but still, the worry in her eyes only told us that it was worse than what we thought. "It struck 15 miles west of the city... in the mainland. registering at an 8.3"

That raised my concern. 15 miles in the mainland was Grimm territory. The beasts had dug in and made nests there, and a catastrophic earthquake might just break some very fragile balances.

Before Weiss could go into further detail, all of us at the table had a collective ping on our scrolls. It was an emergency alert, from Professor Ozpin, the headmaster. He wanted our teams, and a few others to report to Beacons hanger immediately. We all looked at each other, got up and made our way there.

On our way, we saw team CFVY, another group of friends, but they weren't first years like us. We all moved as a collective group, taking no time to catch up. On our way there, we saw some other teams, but these also weren't first years, Velvet, our bunny Faunus friend, informed us that the other teams were third and fourth years.

Our curiosity grew... Why would Ozpin throw 2 First year teams in with a group of third and fourth years? It made no sense. As we all entered the hanger, Ozpin was standing there, signature can and cup of coffee in hands, and made a quick shout:

"all teams are to load up on Bullheads immediately, there will be an in-flight briefing informing you of what is going on and your mission. Anyone your riding with on your way there is with you for the duration of this mission."

"But sir," Weiss piped up, "We have a test in Professor peach's class in 2 days!"

"Your concern is appreciated, Ms. Schnee," Professor Ozpin said, "But understand that this mission is an emergency event, and takes precedence over grades. You and your team will be exempted from this test completely."

I could hear an almost silent 'yes' from my sister, who was clearly dreading another all night study session. Ozpin returned his gaze to the rest of the group, we had to be a good 12 teams, including us and JNPR. "Ok, everyone load up!"

Teams RWBY, JNPR, CFVY and a fourth year team all loaded up into a bullhead airship, and we left. We all knew our destination: Directus.

"So..." One of the fourth years spoke, "Let's get some introductions out of the way. We are SLBR (Silber) Team." He said, he was a medium sized man with 2 blades at his side. He looked over to his right at his other teammates, "This is Lyra," I noticed a bow and quiver on her, she was an archer. "Next we have Bo..." Bo was, pretty big, actually, probably 6'8". "Finally we have Lu." Lu was a mage, who's staff also double as a two sided spear... and many more.

We all made our introductions, and as we finished, the briefing began.

"We will be aiding the city of Directus, which has seen a multitude of powerful earthquakes recently. The city, as valuable as it is, has been deemed unsafe for many reasons. The latest quake, weakened the walls greatly, and Grimm nests have been destroyed. The Grimm are out in force looking for a new home, and they think Directus will be it. Your jobs will be to relieve the military teams stationed there and deal with the Grimm threat, while said military focuses on civilian evacuations. Protect civilians, deal with the Grimm, and help out the military any way you can. Good Luck."

And with that, the voice cut out. Then, Saul began to speak: "Ok, listen up!" He said with steel in his voice, "There are 5 districts to this city: Military, which is the east. Residential, which is the west. Industrial, which is the south near the walls. And Governmental, which is the north. Business area it in between both residential and Governmental, so there's that. The military has already secured the North and east, and are currently working on securing the west. That's where we come in."

Lyra spoke up, taking over: "We will be dropped off at the Eastern district, and will pick up a ride to the 'hot zone'. This area will be where our gunships as well as our focus will be at. We need to clear the west, and move South, driving the Grimm out of the walls. The walls are currently damaged, but some defenses may be up, but are unattended. Once we get to the walls we have full permission to use what is necessary to clear the Grimm out."

"Any questions?" No answer from the group. "Very well. Understand that we are taking our orders from the military, so do as your told. Cover them and any civilian at all times. If you see someone in need of help, don't hesitate to lend a hand, just inform you teammates first before leaving formation."

We all nodded. Seemed like we're in this for the long run, but I just had to know. "Hey, Saul?" He looked at me with a quizzical expression. "Why are first years thrown into this?"

"Well," He answered, "Ozpin likes to throw the best of every class in. This way it gives all of you early experience, and really lets you show off to the other first year classes." He said with a smile. I took his honest answer, and nodded. So Ozpin thought we were the best, eh? I'll take it. I can see JNPR being up there too... now I begin to wonder, who's the best between the two?

I guess we'll find out soon, won't we?

* * *

><p><strong>So, here we are. <strong>

**I was able to find some time today to write, and so far this is the longest chapter at almost 2k words... that's nothing, heh. I've got way bigger things planned for the future, i just want to get this story rolling at a pace that doesn't rush things. Though i do wish i could add a little more that doesn't prolong this to the point of annoyance.**

**Also, OC TEAM, YEAH! Don't worry, these guys are only going to be here until the middle of next chapter. They won't play a roll other than getting the ball rolling and setting up our main characters for battle. **

**Also, multi-PoV chapter coming up! HYPE.**

**There probably wont be a new chapter for a couple days, maybe not until Thursday or Friday. So there's that.**

**Hope you all enjoyed, feel free to leave a review. Tell me how you think i did, what i can fix, if anything. Thanks for reading!**

**Edit: I fucked up! There was an inconsistency that I realized I made accidentally and fixed it. Sorry. I'll explain more in chapter 7's A/N.**


	4. Chapter 3: Time to Rock

Time to Rock

Blake POV

"Inbound to Directus. ETA 10 minutes." The automated voice said.

10 minutes, which is essentially 10 miles away at the speed we're going. There were a lot of aircraft in the sky. A few of the big transport ships that brought us to Beacon at the start of the year even came with us, but were far behind. Those ships were going to aid in the evacuation process, taking more civilians and reducing average return time for the Bullheads.

As we approached the city, the silence on our craft was incredible. I couldn't tell if people were mentally preparing, nervous, or both. I looked around, noticing a steely expression on Yang and Pyhrra, Weiss had a blank look on her, Ruby looked ready, but concern was all I read in her eyes.

I knew she was ready for this. No matter what we had done, where we as a team went, she always had that look. Even staring down a massive nevermore, she never flinched. This look must be her look of preparation. It must have been a look of 'how will this go?' or 'what will happen?'. She was always prepared, always ready to fight. But still, I had to ask.

"Ruby," I asked, breaking her from her trance. She looked at me, "What's up?".

"You ready for this?"

"Do I look ready?" She asked with a smile.

"Always." Yang said, butting in to our conversation. She always had to eavesdrop on any conversation... Ever.

"5 minutes!" Saul shouted. Great.

I could only hope that the entire even was just going to be a search and rescue, and that the walls held up better than expected. Just as I began to think, it was Ruby's turn to ask me, "Blake, are you OK?"

I looked at her "Yeah, of course I am, why?"

"No reason, you just looked concerned was all. Wanted to make sure you were ok." That was our team leader. Always more concerned with her teammates.

"Ok, people, listen up!" We heard a voice say. It was Saul's, again. "We're going to hit the ground running. The military has asked us to charge right into battle instead of being dropped off at the military district. There are more Grimm in the city than originally thought. The entire south of the city is lost, and my not be recovered until later. So we just have to protect the west residential and northern governmental."

"Here's what you should know, also," Lyra spoke now, "In the northern district, there is a road called Church Ave. Follow that road northwest, or towards the mountains, and you will find the rendezvous point, which is North Point Church of the Light. It is the primary evac site for all civilians, so if you see any, tell them to go to the church." She explained. "We will be separated for a good portion of this operation, so when you hear over your scrolls 'return to the Rendezvous point', it means to go and defend it. We will be the last ones off the ground, the military will stay and hold their position. They will retake the city from the Grimm."

"Any questions?" Saul asked. No one said anything. "Good, we drop in one minute!"

Instantly we all got ready. Loaded weapons, steeled our faces, ready to jump into the fight. We knew the bullhead would stay with us and provide gunship support, so that was nice. The atmosphere was palpable, you could cut the air with a knife.

"30 seconds!"

We felt the bullhead descend. Thoughts were racing through my mind. Then, I heard another automated announcement, for SLBR Team:

"Saul, Lyra, Bo and Ri-Lu are to report to General Masler the moment they are on the ground."

"Damn it," Lu muttered, "I hate it when they use my full name."

That lessened some of the tension, causing a short burst of giggles. Then, the door popped open, our operation had begun. We all poured out of the bullhead, realizing we were kind of high. A few stories up, to be exact. Looking down, all I saw was a single Beowolf, trying so hard to look menacing in front of an army. Jaune looked like he had this though.

Off the corner of my eye I noticed he drew his blade, and pointed it, and his feet, downward, aimed at the Grimm. I almost feel bad, poor thing doesn't know what's coming.

Jaune landed with an astounding amount of force, the Beowolf stood no chance. We all landed, and SLBR Team went their separate ways. But the Bullhead, thankfully, stayed.

"Welcome to Directus!" We heard a voice from behind us. An older looking man came forward. I noticed he had a bird on his shoulder. He was a colonel.

"Hello," Ruby responded. "How can we be of service?"

"You can do so much more then we can!" He said, chuckling at his slight joke. "We need to clear out the next few streets of any and all Grimm. We have this new fangled toy from Atlas, called the Paladin. This thing has been doing so damn much it makes useless."

Looking at this thing, and not having it shooting at us, was odd. We know what it can do, so we asked the colonel to go on with his request.

"Right, you all will take the Paladin and it's driver and clear out the streets. That Bullhead of yours will be of good use too. Head over to the next street over, if you want to move back and forth go ahead and use the alleys, but know it will take this mech a moment to join you in the fight."

He was right, it wasn't slow, it was just big. Massive. It would never fit in a small alley like these. We thanked him for informing us of our task, and all 3 teams went out. But before we could make it very far, I felt an odd feeling. It was a feeling of dread, but I didn't know what it was. I stopped in my tracks, trying to understand what I was feeling. Weiss noticed this and questioned me, "Blake, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I just..." Before I could continue there was a slight aftershock.

"Blake, I forgot, you're a cat Faunus!" Velvet said. How many people did my team tell?! "Cat's have a traditionally unknown ability to detect earthquakes seconds before they happen. And here, seconds will count more than anything."

So that's what my feeling was... that feeling of dread was me sensing the earthquake... huh, go figure.

Weiss looked at me, "If you ever feel what you just felt again, tell us, please." She said. I nodded and we moved on.

Something was eating away at her, I could hear it in her voice, I only wonder what...

* * *

><p>Weiss POV<p>

I have never seen Directus in such bad shape before. Windows were blown out, buildings and roadways had massive cracks in them. Debris was all around. This must have been Hell for the people living here.

I had visited this place a few times, mainly to visit my uncle. He was my mother's brother, but my father liked him enough to make him head of the SDC Vale sector. The man convinced my father to train me to be a huntress, he made my weapon, Myrtenaster. He was the traditional crazy uncle, even though he was head of a major company. Nothing seemed to faze him, ever. I could only hope he was ok. Seeing the city he helped rebuild from economic disdain in such ruin broke my heart.

But we must keep going. As we moved to the next street, I saw the military march down the same street. They had cleared it out, already, telling us to move down to the whole next block. This city was massive, and they had only gotten one block of the Civilian district cleared. There were still 13 to go, not including the parts of t he business district.

It was going to be a long day.

As we approached 8th street, we saw a massive amount of Grimm. The walls must have completely come down. The pilot of the gunship above made a message on the radio to be careful.

"There are more Grimm down there now than in the Emerald Forest, stay frosty."

The whole Emerald Forest, I looked to my teammates, and even Team JNPR, who had all done the same, then. As we looked at each other, Coco, team CFVY's leader spoke up, "Whelp, they were going to die anyway... let's make sure they die here, and now!" As she said that her bag opened up, revealing a massive machine gun which unfolded out of its 'carry' position, with an absolutely massive amount of ammo. This crazy chick is ready for war!

Looking to my teammates, they had all loaded their weapons, and prepared themselves. The Paladin behind us also readied its guns. As we did, the Grimm began to attack.

"Stand your ground! If you have a gun, open fire!" Coco commanded. Everyone took positions, Velvet and myself jumped back, readying spells. 8th street become a massive kill zone for the Grimm. They were just mowed down. The bodies literally piled on top of each other 20 feet away from us. I heard a laugh out of Ruby, who was clearly enjoying the kill-fest that was our mission now.

"ADVANCE!" commanded Coco. We all marched forward, using the dissolving Grimm bodies as a high ground. The military used our advancement to move through the street, searching any building still standing.

We were an absolutely brutal firing line, bringing down everything in sight. Though I could tell the only 3 people who didn't use magic or have any guns were getting on edge. Jaune was raring to go more than anyone. I've never seen this side of him. Tenacious is the only word to describe it. Coco also saw this and commanded everyone to stand down.

"If you wanna get up close to these beast, be my guests! Charge forward!"

Jaune and the other 2 of team CFVY ran ahead, Pyhrra and Ruby readied their weapons, Blake pulled her blade and Yang jumped right in. Ren decided to stay back and keep shooting while Nora, being the destructive trouble maker she is, brought out the best in her hammer and smashed some Grimm skulls. I decided to charge ahead too, hovering just above the ground with my target in sight: An Ursa Major.

I don't know why I targeted this massive creature, I guess it was the first thing in my way. I activated Burn dust in Myrtenaster, a moment later the Ursa's body burned as it dissolved. As I pulled my blade out, I looked over my shoulder to see Ruby finish a swipe. 3 Beowolves wanted a piece of me while my back was turned to them, but my leader would have none of that.

Ruby was a child, through and through. Many things she took with immaturity and excitement. School was a big example of this. It wasn't that she never took anything seriously, she just was hyperactive. It annoyed me at first, a 15 year old child leading me. But in time, I learned that she had so much more potential.

When it came to school, and life in general, she wanted to have fun. Make a game out of everything. Her sister Yang would join her. Both were as immature as they came, but in a fight, they both were serious. I never saw it until the middle of the first semester. When I realized my mistake, I just decided to roll with it.

That's one thing my uncle taught me, to just 'go with the flow'. The man was so relaxed, or as he put it, 'chilled', that he earned the nickname 'the Ice Cube.' Eventually Winter and I called him Uncle Ice Cube. Our little inside joke. He loved all of it, taking the power of Vale's SDC sector with a different mantra than my father. He let it slide, understanding that some people can't change, Uncle Ice Cube being the prime example. He turned a board meeting into a party. I just hope he's ok.

"WEISS! GET DOWN!" Snapping back into reality, I looked over to see some very pissed off Grimm. 5 Beowolves, 3 Ursa, and a Deathstalker.

"OH SHI..." Before I could finish my sentence, a force tackled me to the ground, looking up, I saw a nearly majestic yellow mane. It was Yang who had yelled at me, and it was Yang who had brought me down, just as the Paladin put a good amount of rockets through the Grimm.

"Gotta keep your head in the game Weiss!" Yang said, helping me up, "You don't want to end up like those poor suckers." She said pointing at the ashes of the once frightful Grimm.

"Right, sorry." I replied. How long did I zone out for? I couldn't even imagine. Just as we readied ourselves to move up, I heard the call over the radio:

"Nevermore! Get to cover, now!" It was the Bullhead pilot. Just as he made his call, we heard a screech.

This thing was right on top of us, and we were woefully unprepared.

* * *

><p><strong>So I was able to find some free time today. And i enjoyed this chapter a lot. So much that i had to force the end, because I just kept on wanting to write on. I'm really enjoying this, and have big plans for the next few chapters.<strong>

**On that note, the next chapter might be out tomorrow, might be out Friday, I don't know. **

**As always, please leave a review. Tell me what I can fix, if anything. And if you have any questions or notice anything, please call me out on it. I'll clear up any discrepancies to reduce confusion. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 4: Cataclysmic

Cataclysm

Weiss POV

"How the hell did this thing get right on top of us without anyone knowing?!" Was the comment Yang made as we made our way for a nearby alley. The military personnel working on the rescue had also take refuge in any building that was still standing. The Nevermore made a turnaround, quickly landing on a nearby mountain. Screeching, the massive bird flapped its wings and took flight.

"Don't worry down there," the bullhead pilot called over the radio, "We'll take care of this... Paladin, you ready?"

"Locked and loaded." The paladin operator called. The giant mechs guns and on-board armaments were ready to fire. Both took aim and shot a huge salvo of rockets and missiles.

Some made contact, but if they weren't locked to a heat signature, then they were nowhere close to the bird. But nothing phased this thing.

Shaking off the hit, the Nevermore jumped into an attacking pose, made one massive flap of the wings, and sent a flurry of feathers down in a storm, aimed at the bullhead and paladin.

The bullhead, being as agile as it is, was able to avoid the attack, but only barely. The paladin wasn't so lucky. He took the brunt of the attack. 7 feathers in total had pierced through the mech... 7 feathers caused it to explode.

The bullhead pilot now got mad... Really mad.

"Damnit! Son of a bitch, damnit! I'm going in!" He called as he pushed forward, all guns shooting. The bird was pelted by a hailstorm of .50 caliber minigun rounds, and a few unused rockets also hit it big.

This Nevermore had seen its last day, but still didn't go down without a fight.

It did a suicide shot to the bullhead, damaging an engine, all while crashing into a nearby apartment building, striking a gaping maw into the top stories. The bird fell after making contact with the building, and we all drew a collective sigh of relief. All up until we realized...

Our support was gone.

The bullhead was too damaged to stay in the sky, and had to make an emergency landing close to the safe zone by the military district. He confirmed his position and the military picked him up.

Now we had to worry about one thing: What the hell do we do now?

"Ok," Ruby spoke, "I think we need a change in plans." We all agreed.

"You have a plan, Rose?" Coco asked. Coco had clearly taken command over all teams, leading us through a block and a half of Grimm. But this time she was open to ideas.

"Well, we've been going in as an offensive line," Ruby said, "I think with the big guns gone, we need to take this more defensively... if that makes any sense?" Ruby was always afraid that whatever she said either sounded stupid, or made no sense. most of the time her plans were crazy and suicidal... but not this time. No, she was right, and Coco agreed.

"You're right, we need to take this slower since our supports gone. Fox," She looked to her teammate, "Radio the military and see if we can get some more guns or ammo, we're going to need it if we want to push the Grimm back, until then, take defensive positions and hold this line until support arrives!"

We took our positions. Ruby, Pyhrra and Nora all took to the roof of a 3 story building. Velvet and myself stood a tad farther back, preparing to utilize more magic then melee. Ren, Coco and Blake stood nearby a pile of rubble, preparing it so that it made a good defensive wall. Yang, Jaune, Fox and Yatsu-Hashi all took their combat stances. They were ready to defend the line by any means.

A street behind us, the Colonel and his men had finished up rounding up all civilians for evac, and quickly ran over. "We're going to make sure they get to the evacuation point safely, hold this line until we get back, and we'll all push the Grimm out together." Velvet and I nodded, and called the rest of the team on the radio to tell them what was happening. We had 15 minutes before he came back...

15 minutes to survive.

Ruby POV

15 minutes? To hold off a near endless maw of Darkness?

"... Ok, bring it!" I called back.

Just before the Grimm could advance on us, we noticed a glow in the sky. I recognize that glow... It was a locker rocket from Beacon! But... how did it get out here?

Just as I questioned it, there was a voice intruding over our radio, it was Professor Goodwitch. "Alright teams, listen up, we're sending out supplies that you'll need, ammo, guns... Really big guns, everything. Use it well. We got held up by a storm system, so our airships won't be arriving for a few hours. Sorry. We'll send you any supplies you need, just make the call."

"And remember kids," Coco said, "This helpful message was brought to you by TGG. Thank God for Goodwitch."

"I swear Coco... Good luck to you all." And with that, she cut out. The locker rockets landed, 2 near Yang and the others, 2 farther back by Weiss. She and Velvet were directly below us, so it was easier to bring up any supplies. But the Grimm wouldn't be having a restock. They began their assault the moment the lockers hit the ground. Nora, Pyhrra and I raised our weapons, and began sniping Grimm down. The farther back we could hit, the better it would be for our friends in the fray.

Looking down below at Coco and Blake, I noticed they were being very conservative with their ammo. They must be lower than I though. "Hey," I called, "Coco, Blake, go get more ammo, I'll cover for you." Blake turned around to see me and nodded, they both left their post, and now I had to take their responsibility. Kinda tough when their adjacent to our sniping position.

As they got back and retook position, I took a glance at my scroll, looking for the time. It was 5:17. we had only been at this for 7 minutes. We have to hold out for 8. Then, I saw Nora out of the corner of my eye jump into the fight. Looking to Pyhrra, who only said "She couldn't take being so far away from the fight." I nodded, accepting that answer. I knew we couldn't hold her back for long.

"Pyhrra, how are you on ammo?"

"Fine, thanks. You?"

Making my last shot of the magazine count, I took out 3 Beowolfs. "I'm making due, for now. But I'm on my last 2."

"Hey, we're moving up, if you 4 want to come with us." Coco said. "The Grimm are pulling back, so we're moving ahead." That didn't seem right... We should hold this spot just in case we're overwhelmed. Just before I could argue, I noticed everyone had left their spot, all except for Pyhrra and myself. We looked to each other, and knew this was the wrong move, but nothing we could do now. Everyone had moved up.

Not wanting to be left behind, we grabbed some ammo from the locker, and hurried into the fight. It was all up close and personal now. Glancing at my Scroll, it said 5:23. The Military would be here anytime now.

Then I saw it, the apartment the Nevermore crashed into. It's top floors had no wall. That bird did a number to this building. After a moment, I turned my attention to the battle in front of us. It was time to end this.

I jumped in, turning Crescent Rose into a scythe, tearing apart any Grimm that dared step in front of me. Swinging my blade in a flurry of Grimm appendages and roses, I cut them all down.

Weiss was equally as brutal. Utilizing her restock of dust well, she activated her Ice dust. Pointing her blade downward, she instantly froze about 25 Grimm... And I'm rounding down with that number. She jumped back as Yang jumped up. She pounder her fist into the wall of ice, and everything shattered. I kept noticing something with Weiss though. She was always serious in battle, but this time something was legitimately bothering her. I couldn't ask her now, obviously, I've got 5 Beowolves in front of me that...

Ah shit.

I ducked out of the way, as Blake took her opportunity and swung Gambol Shroud around using her ribbons on her wrist. She took apart the 5 Beowolves easily. I nodded in thanks and went ahead. As I moved, I heard a loud, menacing cackle and only thought; 'There's only 2 people here who would do that, Coco, or Nora... Probably Nora.'

Turning around, I see Coco laughing as her gun absolutely tore Grimm apart. Fox had her back, taking any Grimm down that dare challenge her from behind. I saw Coco and Yatsu-Hashi together. Velvet using her magic to blast away anything and everything, While Yatsu made sure she was safe.

I remember Velvet telling me that Yatsu-Hashi was a big teddy bear. A protective person. He came from a big family and was the oldest, so he had experience in looking out for people. When he and Velvet met during initiation, she said that he did everything in his power to make sure she wasn't hurt by anything, and I mean _anything._ I thought that was sweet. And definitely don't want to mess with him.

If only words can describe what he did to Team CRDL after he found out what they were doing to Velvet... 'Big Brother', as he was commonly referred to after the fact, was NOT happy... I honestly never thought an atomic wedgie off of the schools light posts could happen... But did he prove us wrong.

The thought cracked me up as I continued my counter-attack. Then, I realized... Where the hell was the military?

* * *

><p>Blake POV<p>

How long to we have to fight for before we get some help? It was 5:36, the military was late, and being late here meant we would die.

"Move into a defensive position, now!" Coco shouted. "More Grimm are coming!" With that we all moved into buildings. I joined my teammates along with Ren and Jaune, across the street is where the rest of the group went. Out of the streets and in cover, we began to take the Grimm down from the sides. They tried getting in but they would just get cut down by one of many guns that were inside the store we had taken refuge in.

"Hey," Yang piped up, "You think the store owner would be mad if we took some food?"

"What?!" Weiss screamed, "We're busy fighting for our lives, and you're busy worrying about food?!" She had a good point, but Yang's point was made the moment we heard a massive rumble.

She turned back and looked at Weiss, "I had a very light lunch, besides, you guys don't need me for anything. We'll take shifts. Blake, Jaune and I will snack a bit, then we'll tag out for the rest of you, how's that?"

"I don't believe this..." Weiss said.

"Weiss, we haven't eaten all day, I'm getting hungry. I say go for it. It's not like the owner is here to yell at us or anything. He probably won't even know anything's missing when he gets back." Ruby explained.

"I'm for this plan." Ren said simply, returning back to the fight outside. Weiss just sighed, going along with the plan.

As we took some time to eat, I heard a massive snarl from outside. A lone Beowolf had gotten close, too close, and Ren was out of ammo to take it down. But Ruby wasn't. She just turned her scythe, pointing it at the poor creature, and she pulled the trigger, obliterating the skull of the Grimm.

"Thanks, Ruby," Ren said, "Guess I'm slipping a bit."

"Yeah," Ruby blushed, "No problem."

Wait, blushed? Yeah, she is definitely blushing. Does she...? No, no there's no way.

As we finished up our snacks, Yang spoke up, "Ok, kids, snack time!" She said, activating her Gauntlets. "For you all we have anything you can find in the store, and for our friends outside..." Her tone went flat, "We have a load of bullets."

As we began our assault, the one thing that ran through my mind was 'where the hell was the god damned military!' I didn't have to wait long though, as they came down the street, guns blazing. They had multiple vehicles with machine guns attached to them. They moved down the street and took position and a 3 way intersection.

I noticed on one corner was the building that the nevermore hit.

The colonel jumped out of his jeep, and waved for us to join him. He had a pained expression on his face. He knew he was late.

As we approached him, we noticed that the Grimm were retreating. "Ok," He started, "We had an issue, Grimm got a little further in to the city than we would have liked so we had to take them down, but now we're here! Sorry."

"It's ok," Ruby said, "We were able to hold them off for a while."

"I noticed. Here's what I'm going to do, these vehicles are yours, we have transport here for civilians, so you can do what you want with these. We're going back in to help anyone, if anyone is still left, think you can handle any more Grimm?"

"Yeah!" Yang shouted. Guess she was speaking for everyone now.

"Great, good luck!"

"Rose," Coco shouted, "Take that vehicles gun and start shooting, Schnee, Velvet, move back and blast them away." As she started barking out more orders, I felt this, dark feeling... something was wrong, but I didn't know what... I felt, dread... Where have I felt this before.

"BLAKE!" I snapped back into reality to see Coco looking at me, I could tell she had been yelling for quite a bit. "Get the shit out of your ears, girl! Go with Yatsu-Hashi and the others."

"Ok." Was the only response I could make, going to Yatsu and the others... but what was I feeling... where did I feel this before?

"...Oh no..."

* * *

><p>Ruby POV<p>

Coco had given me one job, to take this big beauty of a gun and tear a new one into all the Grimm I see! Awesome. It was a .50 caliber machine gun, big slugs ready to take down an army of Ursa Majors. I made myself ready as I heard the sound of the Grimm roar.

They were coming, in full force.

I aimed my gun and started shooting at the first thing I saw. Shooting for a good minute, then everything stopped.

The Grimm halted in their tracks, some howled, turned and ran... what's going on? I looked around, and noticed an expression on Blake's face, then I remembered what Velvet said earlier that day...

_'Cat's have an ability to detect some earthquakes seconds before they happen!'_ And judging by the fear on her face, I knew what she was feeling...

But it was too late.

The earth beneath us suddenly shook violently. I looked over my shoulder, and saw a huge crack running through the ground, heading right for my vehicle. I was thrown from the car, and hit my head on the ground. I looked up in a daze, and saw the apartment complex that the Nevermore struck... it was getting bigger. No, closer?

...Yup, definitely closer.

Realizing the building had lost all support from the ground, I braced myself, sure that this was the end.

* * *

><p><strong>Shit hit the fan, now. <strong>

**So we finally go to the big event. Now I can get into the part that I really planned for. I'll be honest i just winged the first few chapters. I had more of the later story ready to go then early. But I don't think it ended too badly. Now we can get to what I'm ready to write about. Hopefully that'll make everything less long-winded, but not rushed.**

**As always leave me a review and tell me what I can fix. Thanks for reading.**


	6. Chapter 5: Regroup Part 1

Regroup: Part 1

Glynda Goodwitch POV

The threat warning alarm would not stop ringing, and the map of the Area of Operation we sent our students into has been going crazy. What is going on?

"Crewman, what's happening?" I asked.

"Professor Goodwitch, there's been an event, standby, we're still trying to gather data..." He responded. Everyone in the room was going crazy, and gauges were of the scale. Whatever happened was huge. "Goodwitch, we've had a massive earthquake run through the heart of Directus!"

"WHAT?! Give me numbers, what do you mean by massive?!"

The man gulped before responding, "I-It was an 8.9, maybe even higher than a 9.0... we're still gathering data, and it was very close to the surface... The whole region has gone dark. Every radio tower in the city has come down."

My heart skipped a beat, maybe even two. We sent more than ten teams into the city to help, now we can't make radio contact... We may very well have sent those poor kids to their deaths.

"Can we still try a long range shot directly to scrolls?" Was my only response. I had to hope, and we had to try.

The radio man responded, "I can pick up a few signals, but we cannot make contact with them yet. There's too much interference. I am tracking a few."

"How many? Give me names and numbers."

"We are tracking Pyhrra Nikos, Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren, and Weiss Schnee, ma'am."

'Only four?' I thought to myself, 'Surely there's more then that...'

Just then Ozpin had walked into the room. This was going to be tough. Why do I have to be the one who will have to explain everything to him at one point or another.

He turned to me, and I knew what he was going to ask, but I let him ask it anyway. He hates it when I interrupt him. "Glynda... what happened?"

"Well sir," I began, "Directus has suffered a... an 8.9 magnitude earthquake..." He looked at me, stunned, but I continued, "We have lost contact with all units sent within the city... It has gone totally dark. We can track only four students via their scrolls with our satellites, but that's all we can do pretty much."

He stood in his place, a stunned silence. I've never seen him act like this before. He turned to the people working with the radar systems and asked, "Can you get us an image of Directus, and track all four of the students' scrolls? I also want a thermal imaging of the city whenever you can, I want to see what those kids see, and more."

"Yes sir, we're working on it!"

But as they began to zoom in on Directus, I noticed a blip on the radar. It was coming from across the ocean... From Atlas!

"Wait, what's that blip from Atlas?" I asked. The radar operators zoomed in on it, and quickly identified it...

And it was our worst fear.

"Professor Goodwitch, that is an aerial attack fleet under the command of General James Ironwood!"

"WHAT?!" Ozpin shouted, "What is he doing, where is he going and why is he going there?" He was mad, and I know why. If I know James he would be heading straight to Directus on a war path to burn the city down, killing all Grimm. I've seen him do it before, fire indiscriminately down upon an area, not giving a damn for any human life below.

"Sir, his heading is taking the fleet right to Directus," I knew it, "He's sent a recorded broadcast, receiving now... standby..."

The broadcast played: "To all forces on Remnant, the City of Directus has fallen to the Grimm. We have lost all contact. I am taking my fleet to the city and wiping out any and all Grimm there. We will save what we can of Directus. If you will join us, radio back on our radio frequency encrypted with this message. General Ironwood out." And with that the message cut out.

"Send a message to him right now!" Ozpin sneered, I have never seen him so enraged before, "Tell him we still have hunters and huntresses down there, that there are still civilians! Tell him he has an order from ME to move a mile any further!"

"Sir, this storm is messing with our outgoing transmissions, we can send him the message when it clears, but that won't be for two hours, at the most." The radio operator responded. "And he will be in the city in three hours with his current speed and heading."

"I don't care when it's done, just get it done. And whenever we can connect back with our teams below, tell them everything that has happened. They know where to go, it's all a matter of getting them there faster." With that, Ozpin left the room. I couldn't even begin to imagine how he felt... This was not supposed to be the intent of this mission.

I also left the room, chasing after him. Hoping I could calm him down.

* * *

><p>Pyhrra POV<p>

The ground shook violently, the earth was tearing itself apart beneath our feet. I looked to Jaune, who was having a difficult time standing, and he too looked to me.

"We need to move!" Was his only comment. I looked around, and saw everyone had scattered. Then... I saw something truly horrifying.

Ruby had been knocked out of the car, and was right below a falling apartment building; The one the Nevermore had struck. "RUBY!" I called, preparing to go get her, but struggled to find any footing.

"Pyhrra, no!" Jaune yelled, grabbing my shoulder, "It's too late for her!"

What was I supposed to do? Watch my friend die?! Before I could respond to his comment, the building hit the ground. And she was right underneath it.

The debris from the building and any other that couldn't stay up had started moving our way. It was only a matter of time before we too would be crushed. Jaune was right, we had to move. I could only hope our friends were ok.

After a few minutes, the quake had stopped. We had taken refuge in an alleyway, about half a block from the intersection where the building had collapsed. Both Jaune and I were out of breath and energy. Jaune had offered to let me rest for a moment while he checked a nearby store in search of any refreshments. I wouldn't let him do it, but he insisted. So I sat, waiting, and wallowing in self-pity.

I should have helped Ruby. I could have... But there was no way she could survive a building falling on her. Even if there was a gaping hole in the top 3 floors that landed on... Oh my God, there's still a chance.

This realization got my adrenaline going. We can still save her! I ran out to the store that Jaune was currently raiding for food and water, and told him my thought. There was a glimmer in his eye as I explained, and he agreed to help me. We returned to the fallen building, and couldn't believe our eyes.

The earth had heaved so much that part of it had rose, or the part we were standing in had sunk; either way, the building was now on 2 differing heights.

Taking our chances, we walked towards the building, which we could tell was unstable. The shift in the earth must have come after the complex had fallen, which would make it very unstable. If Ruby was alive in there, we would have to work fast to get her out, or the whole- or what was left- of the building would implode on us.

Time was not on our side.

Jaune broke a window at the top floor and entered, with me close behind. We were walking on someone's walls. I'm sure once not long ago the tenants of this apartment were yelling at their kids about not drawing on them. They would throw an absolute fit if they saw us now. I chuckled at the thought.

We then saw the car with the gun that Ruby had been using. It had a couch and dinner table on it, crushing the inside. I looked to Jaune, the two of us sharing worried looks. Looking around, I didn't see Ruby.

"Do you think she made it?" Jaune asked

"Yes." I affirmed. She could survive so much worse. Then we heard the building creak and moan. We knew it would be down around our ears soon. We re-began our search.

Then, I saw it. It was a lone lighting fixture that was still on, surprisingly enough, swinging back and forth, and in the light, I saw a boot. A red boot.

I grabbed the light, and pointed it toward the leg the boot was attached to, which revealed a second boot, then both legs, and finally Ruby's entire body. She had survived.

"Jaune!" I called, "She made it!" Jaune quickly rushed over, aiming the light at Ruby, who was resting against the risen earth. "She's unconscious, but her breathing's pretty stable. We need to get her out of here, though." Jaune nodded in agreement.

I picked up Ruby bridal style and carried her out of the building. Not a moment after we had stepped out, the building imploded. Jaune looked to me and smiled, "Hey, you were right after all... Good call." I nodded to him, a smile on my face.

"Jaune, we have to find a place where she can rest. We'll get our bearings, I'll get a chance to examine Ruby for injuries and make sure she's ok, then we'll head to the Church for the evac. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sounds fine, but where should we go? All of these buildings look pretty torn up. Which one is the safest?" Jaune asked.

"Well, I'd say whichever one isn't leaning more than 5 degrees in either direction is the safest bet." I said half-jokingly-half-serious. Jaune chuckled, and looked around. "There," he called, "that 4-story hotel on the left." I looked towards the building he was talking about and nodded. Aside for a crack in the face of the building it honestly looked like the only safest place on the whole street. I picked up Ruby again and we made our way over to the Hotel.

We walked into the main lobby, Jaune had Crocea Mors ready, just in case there were any Grimm, or otherwise, still inside. The building looked pretty stable, but this still didn't take concern away. We chose the first floor, but didn't mind taking one of the 'Royal Suites' they had. The one we picked up had 2 bedrooms with massive beds in them; a TV, which had fallen on the floor; a window that overlooked the street for an easy escape if needed; a kitchen complete with a fully stocked fridge, but no power; and, last but not least, a bathroom.

"No wonder people pay so much for rooms like these." Jaune said, "This place is built for a freaking king." I nodded in his assessment, but I had seen bigger suites before.

I took Ruby inside one of the bedrooms and put Ruby down on a bed. I checked my scroll, searching for the time. Clock had said 6:33. It had been just about a half an hour since the earthquake. I also noticed I had no reception. Comms were down. I put my scroll away and began to check Ruby for any major injuries, finding none. I sighed in relief, and left Ruby in the room to rest.

Joining Jaune in the kitchen, I noticed he had found a map of the city. "Where did you...?"

"I found it in the lobby, it gives you all of the 'places of interest' around Directus. One of them is The North Point Church of the Light. On an upside, Church Ave is only 2 blocks from here..." Jaune said.

"Well that implies that there's a bad news to this too." I commented.

"Yup. The church is more than 8 miles from where Church Ave connects with the street this hotel is on, which is 6th street." Jaune said. "So we have a more than 8 mile hike to this church with an unconscious Ruby through probably Grimm infested streets." Well, there was no doubting that he was right.

"Whelp, we better start soon," I said, "I'll go check on Ruby, see if she can wake up. It will be a lot easier to move if she is awake." Jaune nodded and returned to the map. I walked into Ruby's room and walked up to the bed. She had a pained expression on her face, as if she was going through a nightmare. I feared the worst, shaking her shoulder slightly.

She awoke, and I only saw fear in her eyes.

* * *

><p>Ruby POV<p>

I awoke, absolute fear and confusion clouded my thoughts. My muscles punched into overdrive, trying to power through a force that had me pinned by my shoulder. But it didn't have a tight hold on me. Turning my head, trying to figure out where I was and why I was being held down, I heard a familiar voice, it screamed "Jaune, help!"

Jaune? Where did I hear that name? I looked up, and saw red, flowing hair and emerald green eyes. I recognized her instantly, but couldn't figure out who she was... But I knew her.

I stopped fighting, realizing that it was just a waste of energy. "Ruby, are you ok?" The girl asked. That voice belonged to...

Pyhrra!

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine... Had a terrible dream is all." I said. Right after I said that I noticed Jaune rushing into the room. He looked at Pyhrra, then me, then Pyhrra, before commenting, "What, want me to join in or something?"

Pyhrra blushed instantly after realizing she still held both of my shoulders down to the bed. She picked up a pillow and threw it out the door where Jaune was once standing. "You sick-o!" She shouted. Jaune was laughing crazy from wherever he was.

"So, your dream?" Pyhrra asked, "It didn't have to deal with a massive apartment complex falling on top of you, does it?" Ah crap... It did.

"Wait, did that...?"

"Yes."

"So we're not at...?"

"Nope."

"Is everyone...?"

"We don't know, everyone scattered during the quake... I'm sorry Ruby." She said generously.

"It's fine," I replied, "Just, tell me, what have I missed?"

Pyhrra filled me in on everything. I had been knocked out for almost 2 hours? Heh, felt like 3... They pulled me out of the building, which in turn, imploded on itself. Nice timing. We had no communications with the outside... Or inside world, for that matter. And we have an 8-mile hike to the only evac site in the city, which we're not even sure is still standing anymore.

Whelp, the odds have been worse in the past.

"You need a few more minutes to rest, Ruby." Pyhrra said, trying to stop me from getting off of the bed.

"You can't stop me." I said. But Pyhrra called my bluff, and put her hand firmly on my chest, stopping me from moving. "Oh, that's not playing fair."

"Is it not?" She questioned with a humorous tone. With that, I accepted defeat, but began to inspect Crescent Rose. I was more than happy when I realized that the magnets had still worked. After careful examination, I noticed something terrible.

Clearly I had let my expression drop, because Pyhrra noticed my sadness almost instantly. "What's wrong, Ruby?"

"Well, Crescent Rose is still able to shoot, I just can't fire while it's in Scythe-Mode... The nozzle that is attached to the Scythe is damaged, so any other mode I have on this can shoot." I replied. Pyhrra had a quizzical expression on her face, so I had to explain to her my weapon.

There are 4 modes: Carry/Travel Mode; Shotgun Mode; Sniper Mode; and Scythe Mode, all having different Nozzles. While I can shoot in the first 3 modes, the last one couldn't fire, or else I risked the bulled being shot back to my face... And I don't want a bullet- especially from my gun- in my face.

With that, she nodded. "We're going to be leaving in about 5 minutes, but that doesn't mean you can get up and move yet." She explained. Pyhrra was surprisingly good at making small comments be like threats. It was impressive.

She must have been sharing notes with Yang.

* * *

><p><strong>This is the 3rd time I've written this edit, becasue this site doesn't understand how 'Tab' works.<strong>

**Uhg.**

**Let's get this rolling, shall we? I will start this off by saying the Regroup arc is going to be a good portion of this story, but not as slow as this. There will be some Grimm killing, bone crushing, skull smashing goodness coming soon. **

**Also, someone commented that the earthquake scene last chapter gave the impression of the earthquake in the first mission in battlefield 3. I'll be honest with you that mission was my reference point for this story. I've had this idea in my head for months and hadn't played that campaign since it came out however long ago, so when i started writing this i decided to use that mission as reference, as i live no where close to a fault-line of any kind and never experienced an earthquake before. **

**So there's that. **

**As always please leave me a review, tell me what i can do better or fix. **

**Until next time.**


	7. Chapter 6: Regroup part 2

Regroup: Part 2

Glynda Goodwitch POV

I followed Ozpin down the halls of our ship. He was walking very fast. He was mad, no, enraged, over the fact that everything that can go wrong, that is in our control, has gone wrong.

We sent our hunters-in-training teams into a volatile situation ill-equipped in case of an emergency, which has happened now, we can't make contact to those kids to help them, and what's worse, we have a trigger happy general who is bearing down upon them and will be going in guns ablaze the moment he's within range for his missiles. We also can't make contact with said general to make him stop his attack until this damned storm passes, which won't be anytime soon.

This storm system has had us bogged down for more than two hours. It came in fast, and is strong enough to stop our advance, which not only hindered rescue efforts for civilians, but also communications with everyone.

Shaking all of these negative thoughts from my mind I kept up with Ozpin about 15 paces behind. He was walking really fast. I haven't seen him like this in a long while, he wasn't just mad, he was enraged.

He turned into his on-ship office, and I quickly caught up with him. Before he could lock his office, I put my foot in between the door and frame and block it. He didn't try to force it close, thank the light. In heels that would probably destroy my foot. He opened the door and stared me in the eyes, "What is it, Glynda?" He asked.

"Sir, I think we need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about," He responded, "But I suppose you won't stop bothering me until I let you in, so get in."

There was spite in his voice, but it wasn't aimed at me. It was aimed more at himself, or maybe even the situation at hand. He gestured with his hand, telling me it was ok to come into the office. I walked in, and instantly prepared a cup of coffee for him.

Maybe that was his problem, he hadn't had his fix in a while. But as I started the coffee machine, he simply put a hand on my shoulder, and said "Don't." He was not in the mood for anything.

"What do you think we need to talk about, Glynda?" He asked, sitting at his desk, "The events of today or my reaction to the news of our friend General Ironwood?"

"Both." I replied easily. "Sir, you are definitely not yourself. We've been in worse situations before but your outburst in the operation room was... Odd. It wasn't like you. I get that everything today has blown up in our face, damn near literally, but we can't beat ourselves up over it. We will get them out of this, and stop Ironwood from leveling the city."

He sighed, "Glynda, I don't doubt that. I just wish we can do more."

Now this is a side of Professor Ozpin I haven't seen in a while. Not in a long time have we seen worry from him. He was always confident in himself, his staff and his students.

"I know what you mean. I'm worried too. But we have to trust in the kids and their ability. You said it yourself, everyone that is down there are the best of their respective classes." I replied. He looked up at me, and smiled slightly. "The only thing we can do is track the students we can find and watch. It will be like initiation."

"Thank you Glynda... Hm, it's weird, normally I'm reassuring you, how the tables have turned." He replied. He was right, normally I'm the one who's mad at the world when something goes wrong.

Oh, how the tables have turned indeed.

* * *

><p>Pyhrra POV<p>

"Ruby, I'm going to trust that you can sit here and not move too much until we are ready to go?"

"Jeez, Pyhrra, you sound like my dad." I chuckled at Ruby's comment. I had exited the room and looked at Jaune. Something was wrong that had been bugging me deep down. Even before the city started shaking, he was different. Not the Jaune I had come to know. Before we left Beacon he was fine and normal. Now he was more serious.

Not saying our situation didn't call for being serious, but still, something was up. I had to ask him.

I sat with him at the table, while he looked over the map. Without bothering to look at me, he said "Hey Pyhrra." Ok, now that is really strange for him. No matter who it was, if someone sat with him he would drop what he's looking at and talk to them face-to-face.

"Jaune, what's wrong?" I asked.

"What?" This time he looked at me, at least, "What're you talking about? I'm, well I'm a little scared but I don't know who wouldn't be here and now." He was avoiding the problem.

"Jaune, back down the street, when the quake happened and we saw the building fall on Ruby, you sat there and told me to run. How could you turn your back on your friend like that?"

He sighed, "I didn't want to turn my back on her. It killed me deep down to say what I did, but you have to understand, we never would have made it. Pyhrra, we were more than 250 yards from her. If we started moving towards her, trying to save her, we would either be crushed or knocked unconscious by the force of the building." He wasn't wrong. I could hear his voice start to break too. I didn't realize what this decision had done to him.

"I, I didn't think about it like that... Sorry..."

"No, you're right to say what you did." Something was still bugging him though, I could feel it. Before I could press on with my questioning, I heard a pair of combat boots walking towards us.

That girl doesn't understand the words 'Stay here and rest'.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Jaune." Ruby said, using Crescent Rose in its shotgun form as a crutch. I must have overlooked a leg injury by accident. "If I were you in that situation, and I saw me down there, about to be crushed by a 10-story apartment complex, I would think 'Nah, she's toast.' and would run as fast as I could in any other direction" She said with a slight smile on her face. I couldn't tell if she had been joking or not, but either way, it helped lighten up Jaune.

"Thanks, Ruby. But that doesn't make up for me choosing to abandon you, even after the dust had settled. I should have tried harder. I'll make it up to you somehow." Jaune replied.

"It's ok. I forgive you. Don't go out of your way to 'make it up to me'. Like I said, I would have done the same thing. It was a battlefield decision, all leaders have to make one at points in their lives that will haunt them. Don't let this be the one that haunts you."

Wow, for a 15-year-old, she was really, really good with philosophy. I need to start making quotes of some of the things she's said.

"Right," Jaune said after a moment, "We need to get moving, now. We've wasted enough time."

"Agreed." Both Ruby and I replied. As we started to walk out of the Hotel, I took Ruby and put her left arm, which she had been using to hold Crescent Rose, around my shoulder. There was a pretty good height difference between the two of us, but that didn't stop me. She looked up at me, and simply said "Thanks." while putting Crescent Rose in its travel position.

"Just so you know," I said as we walked through the front doors and into the street, "Even though you did help Jaune and I back there, you still broke my order to not move from that spot."

Ruby just chuckled, "Sorry, I'm not good at taking orders, only giving."

Well, she had me there. I laughed that one off, and we walked on up to Church street. We passes so much devastation and carnage. Grimm bodies had evaporated, but their blood still marred the ground. Buildings had been torn apart. If they hadn't imploded or collapsed, they were damaged beyond repair. We made it to church street and looked north to where the church was, only to see something horrifying.

Church street was a 2-lane street. Mostly businesses, and parking spots close to the sidewalks for cars to park in. But the street was separated by a great fissure through the earth.

It was so deep, too. Well over 6 feet. further down, we noticed other buildings had collapsed inward to the fissure. There was no way we could just 'walk right up to the church' anymore. No it was now much more complicated than that.

"Pyhrra," Jaune said, "Set Ruby down against this car here."

"What?!" Ruby protested., "Why? What for? What are you going to do?" Clearly she didn't like this idea, but I knew where Jaune was going with this.

About a month ago, while in one of our late-night spars, Jaune had cut me, deep, with his blade. There was a lot of blood, and my Aura couldn't heal it fast enough. But Jaune could. He had set a hand over the wound and pumped a tad-bit of his own Aura into it, healing it completely.

Now, most people would assume that that's what his Semblance would be, but not me. He was a helpful person, so it only made sense his Aura could be used in the form of healing, but only in close proximity.

Nodding to Jaune, I set Ruby down by the car. She leaned against the damaged vehicle, and Jaune knelt down next to her. He put his hands on her lower thigh, where the injury was, and she kicked him... In the face.

"CREEP!" She called out, setting her foot back down. I couldn't help but laugh at this, as we both woefully forgot to explain what he would be doing.

Jaune just got back up, "Ok, I deserve that, but let me explain." He said walking toward her again. I didn't realize how good of a kick she had, he was knocked back a good few feet. Ruby tried to walk back, away from him, only to bump into me, while I presumably fell on the floor from laughing so hard.

"Trust him, Ruby," I said through breaks in my laughter, "He knows what he's doing." She looked back at me, nodded, then looked at Jaune, still weary over what just happened.

Jaune, once again took position, and put his hands back on her leg. This time, she resisted the urge to kick him again, and let him do his work. A glow came from his hands as her leg also illuminated. After a moment, he was done, and stood back up.

"There," He said, "You should be better now." Ruby took a step on her once-bad leg, looked to Jaune and smiled. "Is that your semblance?"

"If it was, I would be going to school to be a doctor and make a killing in healing." Jaune chuckled, "It's just a family trait we have with our Aura. I still don't know my Semblance... yet." Ruby accepted this answer and nodded. With that we walked on. We would have to go through some destroyed buildings to get to our objective, but I don't think that would be much trouble anymore.

* * *

><p>Ruby POV<p>

I don't know what Jaune did, but it worked well. Sort of, at least.

The pain in my leg was bad, and deep. But once Jaune got at this, it changed. Now there was still some pain, but not as severe. There was still a slight limp, but I could at least walk on my own. I'll take that over being carried or using someone as support anytime.

While we moved into one of the buildings, climbing the ruble to the second story, I apologized to Jaune for kicking him in the face. He said it was ok, but now I feel bad.

Guess we're even in a sense. I could tell, it wasn't the building that was bothering Jaune. Pyhrra could feel it, too. While we walked through the ruins of Church Street, I asked "Hey Jaune, where did you learn that 'family trait'?"

"Oh, uh, Pyhrra and I go up to the roof every night to get some extra practice in." So _that's_ what they do! "I hurt Pyhrra one day, and then I healed her using my Aura.'

"That... That's really useful... And REALLY awesome!" I responded. It was really cool too. Pyhrra chuckled and Jaune nodded. And THAT is where I draw the line. He just _nodded_? No, something is seriously wrong, and we're getting to the bottom of this, now!

"Stop!" I said, almost shouting. Both Pyhrra and Jaune looked at me, with surprised looks. "Jaune, what's wrong, you're not you? I understand we have to be serious, but you never just _nod_ at one of my comments. We are not moving until you tell us what's up!"

"I actually am going to agree to this," Pyhrra said, "Jaune you haven't been yourself all day, what's wrong? What happened?"

Jaune looked mildly enraged, "We're wasting time, we need to get mo..."

"The evac can wait, answer our question." I said, more of an order then suggestion.

"FINE!" He said, throwing Crocea Mors to the ground. "You know what's up? WE'RE BONED, THAT"S WHAT! We have no communication with the outside world, we don't even know if our friends are alive, and worst off, we don't even know if that church is still standing! If the quake didn't destroy it then the Grimm BURIED IT!" He yelled. I haven't heard him like this... Ever... He was, really brutally scary when he was mad. Pyhrra was equally horrified with this outburst, but she stood her ground.

"Ya know Jaune, you don't make a very good pessimist." Pyhrra said almost amused. She wasn't toying with Jaune, she was trying to calm him down.

"It doesn't matter how we look at it, optimistic or pessimistic, the fact of the matter is that we are screwed!" Jaune exclaimed with malice in his voice.

"Hey," this time it was my turn to speak, "We've had the odds against us before. Actually, we've had worse odds then this. Sure we have to go through the rubble of this city, sure we have some Grimm in our way, but that doesn't mean we can give up. That doesn't mean we can sit down and accept defeat and-" Before I could continue, we heard a crash. Then multiple crashes.

Was the building falling on top of us?

... No, it was worse.

Grimm had found us. They must have picked up on Jaune's negative emotions and hunted us down. I looked to Jaune and Pyhrra who both readied their blades and shields. I popped Crescent Rose into its shotgun form and took aim.

The Grimm, Beowolves to be exact, were in the shop next door on the first floor, but they were quickly climbing to meet us in our building. Jaune and Pyhrra took ambush positions at the door, while I readied my shot. As the first Beowolf looked at me I took his head off. This prompted the rest of his pack to come get me.

Well, they tried at least. Jaune jumped out first, raising his shield so that the next Beowolf slammed his face into it. Jaune dropped to his knee, allowing Pyhrra to jump over him and kick the next one in the face. I wasn't going to miss this, so I advanced through the door. But before I could take a shot, the Grimm had fled. Jaune and Pyhrra had only taken out a few, so they must not have been a big pack.

"Ok, Jaune." Pyhrra said, trying to catch her breath, "You have every right to be upset with this day, but try not to despair. That's how the Grimm will find us."

Jaune nodded, "I-I'm sorry, girls." He truly sounded apologetic.

"It's ok." Both Pyhrra and I replied. And with that, we continued on to the church, weary of any Grimm still near.

While we walked on there was only one thought in my mind: What happened to our friends?

* * *

><p><strong>So, I have some explaining. First off i did want to get this story out on a few days ago, but life reared its ugly head and stopped me. Another big issue was finding a direction to send this chapter down, without actually making it INSANELY OOC for our characters, or just really really bad. I'm happy with how this ended, though. But there were other ideas I had that actually made me delete this WHOLE chapter and start anew, just because they were so bad.<strong>

**Oh well, writing. **

**On that note, this chapter, eh? A lot of emotions. This will be the end of the line for Ruby, Jaune and Pyhrra. No they aren't dead, I'm just moving on to a new group. I do have an issue with how I'm going to move the story along (i.e who is getting the spotlight next.) I'm just gonna think about it over the weekend and start writing whenever I have an idea.**

**On that note this will end Chapter 6: Regroup part 2. Tell me how I did and what i can fix. **

**Thanks for reading.**


	8. Chapter 7: Regroup part 3

Regroup Part 3

Blake POV

Time: 5: 46

The earth trembled and heaved below us. It felt as if the world was tearing itself apart. Then I heard it... Buildings, crashing down, around and on top of each other. I looked around, trying to find any means of escape. There were many tall buildings around us, which meant that if anything fell the wrong way, we'd be crushed.

I looked up and saw Ren and Fox, both trying, and failing, to stand to the heaving of the earth. I looked around again, and saw a clear shot through an open alley. The buildings on each side of the alley had collapsed inward, leaving a wide enough space to pass through.

"Ren! Fox!" I shouted, "Follow me!" They both looked at me and nodded. We made a break for the alley, which had led southward. As we moved, we heard a massive boom. Something big had fallen, but we didn't know what. All we knew was that a huge amount of dust and smoke from this thing was following us through the alley. We pushed it into high gear and made it through to 5th street.

It was after we made it to the middle of the street that the shaking had stopped. Finally, the earth was at rest. At least, for now, we hoped.

"Ok," I spoke up, trying to catch my breath, "So, now what?"

"Well," Ren actually said something, "We need to take a moment to rest, we've overexerted ourselves over the last 15 minutes alone. We need to rest, recover, and then try to regroup with anyone that survived..." He stopped himself immediately after that comment. It pained to hear that.

"Hey," Fox spoke up in almost a surprisingly smooth voice, "It's like my gram always said: Hope for the best, and eh... to hell with it, expect the best too." He chuckled at his own comment, "Crazy bitch always was overly optimistic." He trailed off.

I quickly examined 5th street, trying to find anything that was still standing that we could hide in and relax for a moment. Ren was right, it was only a matter of time before we all crashed from overwork. I turned around after seeing nothing of use, and then, I saw the most beautiful thing, the most majestic building, it was as if the light was shining down upon this place, keeping it safe from all harm... A mattress store!

"There!" I pointed out the building, almost shouting in excitement. I haven't slept on a real bed in months!

Don't get me wrong, the beds at Beacon are... Ok. Not too tough, but not exactly the most comfortable things in the world. But here, right in front of us, our salvation! I think I'm going to cry.

Fox went ahead, though, and said he was going to clear the store out of any Grimm. Ren helped me to my feet, and we walked into the store. As we did, Fox called out that the store was clear. We began the search for our beds. And here, no one could yell at us for trying to sleep on them.

As I looked, all I could wonder was how this store stayed up while every other building collapsed. This place had minimal damage, only a few cracked windows. Oh well, doesn't bother me in the least.

After a few minutes I found my perfect bed. I quickly sunk into it, and almost instantly fell asleep. Before I did, though, I had a though: What about our scrolls? We could try to make contact with the others!

"Ren! Fox!" I called out, "Check your scrolls, we can contact the others that way!" I saw Ren, a few rows of beds back, quickly turn to his pocket to bring his scroll out. Fox however, who was on the other side of the store, just shouted "No good! It's busted." Well, that was a swift buzz kill. But that doesn't mean I can't check mine.

Pulling out my scroll and opening it, I found something that totally killed my joy in a flash. A large crack ran across the screen completely. Nothing would work. It was toast, at this point. I threw the piece of junk to the ground in frustration and turned to Ren. He was our only hope now.

The stoic boy just looked at me, and simply stated, "It's on, it works, but I have no reception. I can't even contact professor Goodwitch. It appears that all communications are down, Blake. I'm sorry."

"Damnit!" I said, "Ah, it's not your fault, Ren. At least it's working. That means that Goodwitch can track us, so long as it's on."

I remembered a while back, just after initiation, when we received our bunks was also when we received our scrolls. Goodwitch had made it very clear: It's the key to your dorm and only your dorm, unless given a special access code by another dorm to enter freely, of course. It also doubled as a phone, if that wasn't evident enough. Finally, It had a tracker on it that could never be turned off, unless the phone was off. This was in case of emergency, they could find you. The battery life on it was amazing, too. It could go days without charge and still be fully functional.

This thought brought me hope and joy. If they can track us, they can find us! Even if it's only one person, so long as we stay together we can get through this.

"Ren," I called out, "Set your scroll to wake us up in a half an hour. I think we can take the time and rest for a few minutes." It was true. Even though we had to get moving to the church for the extraction, it can wait. It won't take us long and a few moments of rest won't do us any harm.

"Ok." He called out. And with that, I fell back into the bed, drifting away slowly into a much needed slumber. My only thought was where our friends were, and how were they doing.

* * *

><p>Ren POV<p>

I set my scrolls alarm to alert me in thirty minutes. I feel that's an appropriate amount of time before we start moving. I'm just glad someone listened to one of my recommendations without protest. Normally with my team Nora will say something to keep everything moving. What she doesn't realize is that she may have enough energy to keep going, but others do not. Rest is vital, no matter what.

As I lay in the bed I had chosen, I stared at the ceiling above us. I waited so patiently for an aftershock as violent as the quake, but it just wasn't happening. I was scared, not for me, but for Blake and for Fox... Actually, I was scared for everyone.

I pushed this thought out of my mind. Negative emotions will only lead Grimm to us. Fear, anger, sadness... All of these will be lethal to us. And yet, I couldn't help but fear... For my friends... For Nora, Jaune, Pyhrra... Weiss, Yang, all of Team CFVY, and especially Ruby.

I saw her get knocked out of the car she was in when the quake happened, I wasn't sure what happened next. She was at an odd angle from me and disappeared behind the vehicle, and before I could make sure she was ok, Blake called for me to run with her. I killed me to leave her behind like that, but she's a strong girl. I know she'll survive.

As I struggled to push these thoughts out of my mind I heard footsteps. I knew Blake had fallen asleep to fatigue, so the only other person who could be walking would be...

"Fox."

"Hey,' he responded, "Shouldn't you take your own advice and rest?"

"You're not..."

"Weeeeeell I'm older than the two of you, I gotta look out for ya. And if that means I skip some sleep, then whatever. Not like I haven't done it before."

"We never said we needed someone to look after us."

Fox just stared at me and chuckled, "Hey, it could be worse. You could be stuck with the biggest of big brothers, Yatsu-Hashi. He would never let you two out of his sights." He took his gaze off me and looked to Blake. "Besides, you two may be the best of your class, but that still doesn't mean we can't look out for ya."

"Hmmm, I suppose your right. We still don't need the 'over-the-shoulder' kind of treatment..." I responded, but Fox would not let me finish that sentence, "Hey now, I never said anything about looking over your shoulders. I just want to make sure you all get home safely." I couldn't deny his logic, so I just nodded and looked back at my scroll. Timer had 13 minutes on it.

"Well," Fox said, "Time flies... Get some rest now, I want to get moving ASAP." He walked off to the front of the store. He seemed to be looking out for any Grimm, making sure none got in the store.

I lay back in bed, trying, and failing, to find sleep. I envied Blake, and her ability to sleep almost anywhere. During one of our midnight study sessions, Blake had fallen asleep while leaning against a brick wall. She wasn't the first one down, however. Actually, she was one of the last. The only ones that remained during that night was Ruby, Pyhrra, and Yang, though Yang was dosing off. We had decided that we should stop studying, since half of the group had fallen. Instead, we just decided to talk.

From this one night, I learned a lot about my friends. Had a few laughs. Eventually, Yang had succumb to the sandman, like the others. Pyhrra was the last to fall. I was surprised, in a way. It always seemed that Ruby was more of an 'early to bed, early to rise' kind of person. But here she proved me wrong. Her and I had just sat there and talked for a good hour, shared some laughs, and eventually realized that we only had about an hour in a half to get our teammates up and ready for classes.

That was the first time, in a long time, really, that I could connect with someone. Everyone would see me with Nora and think we were together as a couple, so they would completely ignore us. I guess they wanted to give us space.

My scrolls alarm had sounded, breaking me from my thoughts. Time was up, I suppose. I looked to Fox, who just nodded and walked to Blake, shaking her slightly. With that, Blake woke up, and we prepared to set off for the Church.

I looked back at my scroll, checking the time. 6:37.

"We should probably get moving." Fox said. Blake and I agreed, and we headed out.

* * *

><p><strong>Ok, I have some explaining to do. <strong>

**This story is up late. I wanted it up by Friday, but then I got lazy, really lazy. Saturday I sat down to write it but couldn't figure out how i wanted the story to play out. The combinations are set, it's just I'm not sure how I want this part of the story to play out just yet. What I think I'm going to do is give off the other combos first, then continue with the next arc, which will be Reunified. I have almost everything planned out, I'm just struggling to find a means of putting that plan in action.**

**So, with that I'm going to finish this story. I know, it was short. Shorter then i wanted, and with less action then is wanted as well, but the next group up will definitely see action, i promise. **

**As always, until next time. **


	9. Chapter 8: Regroup part 4

Regroup Part 4

Weiss POV

If one thing can go my way today, it would be a miracle.

Right now I'm finding myself with the two biggest nut jobs in the school. One with grenade launcher and Hammer combo, the other is now running around with her chain gun.

How in the world did I get Nora and Coco?

I tried to catch up with Yang, who was running with Yatsu-Hashi, who looked like he was carrying something. But they ran too fast. That and Coco wasn't going to let me move another step. She practically took my head of when she grabbed me. I guess I was standing under some falling bricks. I owe her, no doubt.

She and Nora both helped me up and we ran during the earthquake. We ran up 6th street, and before we turned down another, more open, street, I saw something terrible.

My team leader, Ruby, who was right under a falling building. She wasn't moving, which told me she was hurt. Before the building fully came down on her, I put up a glyph. It wasn't the strongest one I put up, but in my haste, it was pretty damn good.

The building came down with a crushing force, and a chill went up my spine. I could only hope that my glyph had kept Ruby safe. Before I could move back with Coco and Nora, I turned to face some very enraged eyes. I hoped it was a Grimm, at least then I could stab it with Myrtenaster and get away with it.

But alas, it was only Coco, who was ready to tear me a new one for making her and Nora wait. But before she could, the latter had stopped her, only saying "We need to move, now!" Her voice had urgency, and as I looked over her shoulder, I saw more Grimm moving over the rubble of the wall.

The quake brought a huge chunk of the wall down, and with it left an opening for all. We saw this and ran.

That was about a half an hour ago. Since then, we've been moving through the rubble of the city, trying to get to the church. At least, Coco and Nora were.

I have a different objective, however.

My uncle, the Chief of the Schnee Dust Companies Vale branch, lives and works here in Directus. He often told me about when he and my mother were growing up in the city. It had gone through economic strife, and they had to leave. They went to Atlas, my mother met my father, and in time they married. My uncle was named Head of Vale HQ after the old one retired. He moved his new base of operations to the city where he grew up. He told me that no matter what happened, he would stay in the city. He would die for it, if it meant the city stayed safe.

He loved Directus.

I know he would not have left. He would have sent everyone else away, but he would have stayed and helped any way possible. I have to find him. I need to bring him home.

Which is why my mission is to out to the Headquarters, which is 2 miles from the church. At this point, Coco and Nora are being company for me. Once we get on to the street where the buildings at, I'm leaving them.

"Weiss..." I heard my name, breaking me from my thoughts. I looked up, and noticed that Nora was looking right at me,

"Weiss, are you ok? You haven't said a word since before the quake, and you look troubled." Nora was actually concerned.

"I'm fine Nora, really. I'm just worried for Ruby, that's all." I lied. I had to, if either of them had found out my real intentions were... I don't even want to think about it.

"Your team leader will be fine," Coco said, standing watch near the door of the store we were resting at, "She's a tough kid with a quick wit, she'll get through this."

"I don't think you can 'get through' a building falling on top of you." I challenged.

"Ok then, Schnee, look at it the way Fox's Grandma looks at it: Hope for the best, and expect the best."

"Uh... I'm not sure if that's how it goes?" Nora asked.

"Well, I never said her mind was right, now did I? Hey, we have an opening, we can get across to the next street right now if we go." Coco said.

"Let's take it," I responded, "We can get to where we're going a little sooner."

Nora and Coco nodded, and we bolted across the street. We managed to move without being noticed by any Grimm, surprisingly. We moved into a building where a bus had crashed into it. The entire face of the building was gone because of this, and the 2nd, and possibly third stories, had collapsed. But there was a little space that led from the front of the building into an alley. We couldn't get to the alley from the street, so we moved through the building.

Navigating this is like moving through a damn maze.

"Ok, where are we?" Coco asked me.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because the SDC moved their Vale HQ here not long ago, and I imagine you've visited this city a couple of times..."

"Well that doesn't mean I know the city like the back of my hand. If you want that, you'd need to go to my uncle." Then it hit me...

I do know the city really well. But only from SDC Headquarters. I can tell you where to go from the perspective of the building. That gives me reason to have both Nora and Coco come with me to the building.

"Wait..." I called out, just as Coco and Nora were moving to the end of the alley, "I do know the city, but only from perspective."

"What?" Coco asked.

"Oooooooohhhh, I get it!" Nora said, "She knows the city, but can only tell us from the SDC building because that's where she spent the most time! It's like being at home, You know where to go, but only from the perspective of your home!"

"Ah, I see." Coco said, not entirely thrilled. "So you know where to go, directionally, but only from the HQ?"

"Yes." I responded.

"Great. Where is it, at least?"

"At the end of 12th street. Right now, judging by the 'Mike's Deli' sign, I'd say we're at 9th street."

"What's the fastest way to 12th?" Nora asked.

"I couldn't say which was the fastest. On foot all routes take the same amount of time."

"Ok," Coco said, "We'll just keep moving until we get to 12th street. You'll lead the way from there, Schnee."

"Right." Both Nora and I said. We regrouped at the end of the alley, only to hear vicious snarling from the street.

A pretty good sized pack of Beowolves had found us, and they looked hungry.

Coco prepared her minigun but before she could, Nora stopped her. "This is easy, let Weiss and I handle this. You need to save your ammo anyway for bigger problems."

Wait, is Nora actually being thoughtful, calm and collect? Ok, I need to question her after we dispatch these Grimm. I need to know if she's feeling well.

Coco nodded, "Show me what you can do." She said, gesturing out to the street. Nora prepared Magnhild as I drew Myrtenaster and readied a dust chamber. "On three..." I said, "THREE!" Nora yelled, launching herself into the pack. I sighed, but went on in, Myrtenaster glowing red with Fire dust.

Nora had already taken down 15 Beowolves with one smash. Any others that survived had jumped back and put themselves right my path. I jumped down, bringing Myrtenaster into the earth creating an explosion, burning any survivors of Nora's smash-assault. Before we could ready our next move the remaining Grimm fled.

"Ok, we got them on the run now but they'll be back any moment with help. Let's get moving!" Coco called, getting a head start on us. Nora and I looked to each other, shrugged, and moved on.

Now deep into the residential district of Directus, we entered a massive apartment complex. It wasn't really a single complex, it was multiple apartment buildings. If I remember correctly, there are, or were, at least, about 25 buildings with 4 apartments per building.

But that's all I knew, unfortunately. Uncle Chill, Winter and myself only visited on a few occasions. Mainly because this part of the city had, in his words, "The best parks, ever... of all time." Hard to deny it, especially when those were the _only_ parks he let us go to as kids.

"Ok, Schnee... Now where?" Coco said.

"I have to be honest, I don't entirely know... I've only visited this part of the district once or twice, not nearly enough to know my way around it. But if you want I can show the best parks, ever."

Nora chuckled a little bit at that, but Coco wasn't amused. "God damnit. If my scroll wasn't busted from falling on my own ass I would pull up the map of the city." And then it hit me: our scrolls. I quickly pulled mine out, checking to see if it was still ok. Nora did so too, but her pockets only came up empty. "Oops." She said with a nervous grin. Wasn't the first time she's lost it, and light only knows it won't be the last.

I found my scroll and pulled it out, praying it still worked. There weren't any cracks on the screen or any kind of damage on the outside, but there could very well be some on the inside. I pressed the button and the screen illuminated. Coco almost shouted with glee, "Bout damn time something went right! Pull up the map Saul sent you, we'll find our way out of this mess." I nodded, and quickly found the map. Bringing it up on screen, I realized I had no connection.

"Coco, I think communications are down, I have no connection with Ozpin's ship. Or with anything for that matter..."

"It makes sense, comms being down." Coco said, "An earthquake that big will do a lot. So long as you can find the map, we're fine."

"I can, we just don't have the GPS active, so we have to find ourselves without help..." I trailed off, trying to find the apartment on the map.

"Ah, technology, making us lazier and lazier..." Claimed Nora.

"I never said it was an issue... Aha! Found it... Sort of, I don't know which entrance we're at"

"The one off of Guard Street." Coco pointed out.

"There's four entrances off of Guard. We need to get to the middle building. I can gauge it better from there."

"Well what are we waiting for?!" Nora cried out, "Let's go!" She charged headlong into the apartment. I felt sorry for the rest of her team. They had to deal with that? She single handedly made Ruby look like a well-behaved child. And _that's_ saying something.

Coco sighed, "I guess we better go after her... You know which building is in the middle?"

"Yeah," I responded, "It'll say 'Guard Apartment Main Office'."

"Well, let's go, I guess..." And with that, we quickly chased after Nora. It hurt, running through the apartments, knowing that this was the place where my mother grew up. These buildings once housed a variety of people, the old, the young. Sounds of joy and happiness, of sorrow and sadness, all once emanated from this place. Now it was all replaced by eerie silence. Most buildings were completely destroyed, some were caved in, others had small portions still standing, but not nearly enough to salvage any of it.

After a moment of walking in silence, Coco finally called out, "Nora! Where'd you go, girl?"

Silence.

Coco looked to me, worried. I shared her worry, but also held some curiosity within. Maybe this was Nora playing Hide and Seek? Bad place, but knowing her, it was definitely possible.

"Guuuuuuuuuyyyyys! Wheeeeerrrrrreeeee aaaaaarrrrrrreeeee yooooooooooooouuuuuuu?!" Well, we found her.

"Nora!" I called, "Let's play Marco Polo, ok?" Coco looked to me with a curious expression. "What? She won't just tell us where she's at, especially if she doesn't know. This way we can find her and get back to searching for the building."

With that, Coco nodded. "Marco!" She called.

"Polo!" She was close. Either that, or her voice was _really_ loud.

We ran to the other side of a row of apartments, "Marco!"

"Polo!"

Closer, ever so slightly.

"Marco..."

"POLO!" In a demonic voice, she jumped out of an abandoned building, hammer in hand. I swiftly brought up a glyph, protecting both Coco and myself from Nora's 'game'.

The latter hit the glyph with a tremendous, and sickening, thud. Bouncing back and landing on her butt, she rubbed her head, "Oooooowwww, you're no fun, Weiss." I chuckled.

"Well, maybe if you didn't jump us and try your hardest to smash us with your hammer, I wouldn't have brought that glyph up."

Coco chimed in, "And, if you had just stayed where you were and kept calling 'polo', you this wouldn't have happened." She was almost fuming.

"Well, in her defense, we never really said she had to stay put. All we said was, 'We're playing Marco Polo'."

"Schnee, don't start defending her... Ok, where are we now."

"Oh, ohohohohohoh, I know!" Nora called, bouncing to her feet. "That building Weiss was talking about, it's right over here!" with that, she ran off. Coco and I quickly followed, and found that the building was still standing.

"Terrific," Coco said, "They probably have food and drinks in there. This is the best time to sit and take a breather." Nora and I nodded. We could both use it. But before we entered the building, we heard the snarling again. We all looked back, only to see burning red eyes. Nora and I drew our weapons, only to hear Coco call out to us...

"No. You two have done enough. Go inside, rest, get your bearings. When I'm done, we'll take 15 minutes." Nora and I both nodded, and ran inside. We didn't want to get in the way of Coco; she needed to let loose.

I looked at my scroll, checking the time. 6:56. The faster we can get to the SDC building, the better. I also checked the map, which was useless. Without the GPS tracker, I couldn't tell North from South, East from West, or any other direction. I checked the reception desk and found a paper map. Unfolding it, I set it down on a nearby table.

"Oooooooohhh, doing it the old fashioned way?"

"Yes, Nora, I'm afraid we have no choice."

After that, Nora and I began to examine the map. A moment later, Coco came in, her chain gun folded up. "Does the SDC building have an ammo cache, by chance?" All I could do was nod. "Good... I'm gonna need it." There were that many Grimm out there?

It didn't matter. With Coco coming back in we only had a 15 minute break. That wasn't much. Nora went to find snacks and drinks while Coco searched for anything of use, weapon-wise. I stayed at the table and looked at the map.

We didn't have very far, but with the amount of Grimm we've seen so far, we may have our work cut out for us. Especially if we have to move closer to the wall.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm Back! Yay. Leaving this one where it is. Really glad I can get some Nora AND Coco love in there. I wish I could do more with Weiss, but she's been designated as the guide on our little tour through Directus. <strong>

**Also got some manipulation in there. I feel that hasn't been touched up on enough in the show. She obviously knows her way around getting people on her side, but they won't show that much. Soon, I hope, we can see more of it.**

**So the next chapter might be up sooner, my school decided it would be smart to give us Tuesday off. Maybe for election day? Who knows, who cares, I get it off, I'm happy. That will leave me plenty of time to write. Will definitely get it started Tuesday, but may not be done until later. Either way, a new chapter will be coming sooner than expected. **

**Speaking of, we will also being seeing our last trio, Yang, Yatsu-Hashi and Velvet next time. So if you enjoyed how this group went, your gonna have to wait for a chapter or two until we get back to it. **

**Anyway, enough rambling. See you all next time, hopefully soon, if everything goes right. **


	10. Chapter 9: Regroup part 5

Regroup Part 5

Yang PoV

"Run, now!" Yatsu-Hashi screamed as he picked up Velvet. She had been struck by falling debris, but managed to use a spell of some sorts to escape serious harm. Still, though, she was unconscious.

Yatsu-Hashi and I ran up the street, the opposite direction of where we were fighting a moment ago. I feel horrible, leaving all of our friends behind like that. But we'll meet up... Somewhere... Somehow...

I know we will.

As we ran farther and farther away, the earth stopped shaking. It may have stopped at that moment, or it may have stopped after the first ten seconds, hell I don't know anymore. We stopped in our tracks, I looked to Yatsu-Hashi who just held a look of concern at Velvet. She still hasn't woken up. Without saying a word I searched for a place where we could rest an assess our... Dilemma.

Before I could find one, however, Yatsu-Hashi called to me, "Yang! Over here." There was an auto-shop that was still standing. I jogged over and we headed in. There was the shop itself, then separate rooms in the building. One was a break room, the other was the front area. Yatsu-Hashi took Velvet into the break area as I looked for anything that could be of use to us. Food, water, motorcycle parts...

Wait...

Yang, focus. Velvet needs help right now.

I found a vending machine. Actually, two. One with drinks. Mainly pop and energy drinks, but there was a selection of water. Another had snacks. Not healthy snacks, but snacks nonetheless. Readying Ember Celica, I pried open both machines. Grabbing what I could, I ran into the break room. It had a TV, multiple couches and chairs and, of course, a refrigerator.

"Well," I began, "My gesture of kindness was totally unnecessary."

Yatsu-Hashi looked at me and smiled. He already had some water next to him. "You went out of your way to find those. It wasn't unnecessary."

I smiled at his reassurance and set the water down on the nearby table. As I did Velvet began to stir.

I stood near the table, unsure of what to do. Velvet opened her eyes, looked at me, then Yatsu-Hashi, back to me and spoke, "Yang... When did you join our team? Or are you just visiting?"

I couldn't help but chuckle, "I guess you can say I'm visiting. Just not where you think..."

"Oh damnit... It wasn't a dream."

Yatsu-Hashi and I both laughed. Before I could make another joke Yatsu-Hashi spoke up, "We need to rest. You two sit here, I'm going to see if I can find better supplies than this crap food." As he stood up, Velvet sat up and patted the empty seat next to her, gesturing me to join her. I sat down, water in hand, and sank into the couch. It was really comfy.

"So, Yang," Velvet started, "How are you doing?"

"Me? Forget about me, you're the one who got knocked upside the head with a chunk of building. How are you doing?"

"I've take worse before. I just need an excuse to sleep." She joked. "Seriously, though, how are you?" She was determined on this. We haven't even told her that the group was separated and she still held concern for others. She was just like Ruby, in a way.

"Well," I stared, preparing to get her caught up on everything that's happened since she was knocked out, "Considering that we're separated from the group, we have no idea where we are or how to get to where we're going, and to top it all off the city has been torn apart. How do I feel?

...

Pretty damn grateful to be alive."

Velvet nodded, accepting my answer. "We'll find a way to get back with everyone, don't worry."

"I never said I was worried."

"No, but it's in your voice and written all over your face. You don't need to say anything."

Damn, she's good. We sat in silence for a moment, until I broke it, "So how long do you think Yatsu-Hashi will be?"

Velvet looked up at the ceiling, trying to make an educated guess, "A few more minutes. Once he found what he's looking for he can be fast. Besides, he wouldn't want to keep us waiting."

"What a gentleman."

"More like a big brother." Velvet said with a chuckle, "Every team has something like that, I suppose. That rock, that immovable force. Yatsu-Hashi is ours, you would be your teams big sister." She looked at me, "You've had plenty of experience with being Ruby's older sister that that's all you're used to, in the sense of teams."

"Ok, whoa," I stopped her right there, "don't psychoanalyze me... Or is this session free?"

She laughed, "You are also the joker."

"Well someone's gotta be. Weiss certainly won't do it; she's so 'above' that kind of stuff. I can't trust Blake to even look up from her books, let alone make a comment. Ruby... Actually, I can trust Ruby to make a joke or two. She and I _are _the queens of pranks at Signal."

"Queens?" Velvet asked, "A shared throne?"

"Sometimes I need help. And growing up close to someone makes you think just like them. We knew what we both could do, fighting each other would be a waste of good pranks. So we tag teamed against everyone. No one could stand up to the combined might of our pranks. So we split the throne 50/50."

"Wow," Velvet sat in amazement, "I should tell Coco that. She's been dying to start a prank war but we haven't had any volunteers outside of our team..."

"Tell her I said 'Bring it'." I commented before she could finish.

After a moment Yatsu-Hashi showed up. "I found some good food for us. Eat up, build up your strength and we'll head off to the Church." He said setting down bags of food on the nearby table.

"Yatsu..." Velvet said, "Where did you get this stuff?"

"The owner of the store won't be missing it." He said easily. He started to sound just like me.

"Well..." I started, "He did go out of his way to get this... I'm not complaining.!" I dove in, devouring anything on the table. Yatsu-Hashi wasn't joking when he said he had found good food. It was actual food in to-go packs. Though some of it needed to be nuked in a microwave, it wasn't bad cold.

We chowed down on Yatsu-Hashi's find from his... exploration... I noticed Velvet had slowly been getting better as time went on. With some food her strength was returning. Yatsu-Hashi still stayed stone faced. He smiled every now and again, but I could tell he was keeping his guard up, ready for anything. Be it a second quake or a Grimm bashing the wall down with its skull.

As for me, I was, like Velvet, finding my strength with time and food. But my strength wasn't my main concern. Velvet was right about me: I am the teams 'Big-Sister'. When someone has a problem my first reaction is to jump in and see what I can do to help. So, naturally, my concern was with my team... With all of the teams, all of our friends. But mainly my team. Priorities.

I was worried about Ruby. She was on the turret when the quake happened, and I can't remember seeing her get off of it. I didn't even know what happened to Weiss; she had disappeared during the battle. At least from my view. I remember seeing Blake with Ren and... I think Fox was his name.

"Yang, you ok?" A voice snapped me back into reality. Searching for the voices owner, I saw both Velvet and Yatsu-Hashi staring at me. I guess I let my concern give me a worried look.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"They're ok, you know." Yatsu-Hashi said, "Your teammates, your friends, ours too, all of them are very resilient. They'll make it. By hell or high water."

"You... But... I didn't even... How did you know?" I was baffled. I didn't say anything, nor intend to. Yet he read me like a damn kids book.

"You and I are the same, Yang. We're the big siblings of our teams. I have a lot of experience reading faces and expressions." He claimed. "Also, Velvet has some books at our dorm that deals with psychology."

"YATSU-HASHI, QUIET!" Velvet yelled, smacking him on the shoulder with an open hand. "She wasn't supposed to know that! I was hoping to analyze her!" She sat down and pouted, giving the cutest fake-anger expression. Yatsu-Hashi only laughed.

"If you wanted to examine her, you should have just said so." He said, weary of sitting down next to her. If there was one thing we were taught at Signal, it was to _never_ piss off a magic user.

After a few moments of laughter over what had just transpired, we rested some more and let our would-be dinner settle. We would need to get moving soon, however. We had wasted too much time before we realized it.

"Ok," Velvet said, "Are we ready to go?" Both Yatsu-Hashi and myself nodded. "Then let's move. Yatsu-Hashi, do you know the way to the church?"

"Best way would be to move north to Church Street, then follow it up to the building." He said as we walked out of the auto shop. "Any street from here should take us to Church, but if not then we will improvise."

Velvet nodded, "Ok, lead the way." It seemed like Yatsu-Hashi knew where he was going. Or maybe he just realized moving north is just the best general thing to do when we were told our target would be north.

We walked on, I kept Ember Celica ready with my sense on edge. Yatsu-Hashi was still ready for anything, and Velvet was keeping an open eye, and ear, to anything and everything. Still, this didn't stop her from attempting idle chatter.

"So Yang, you were telling me about how you and Ruby were the 'Prank Queens' at Signal. How exactly did you do it?"

"Uh, well... Wait, are you trying to phish for information out of me?"

"She's onto you Velvet, stop now while your ahead." Yatsu-Hashi said with a chuckle, only to have Velvet slap him on the arm again.

"A great prankster, Velvet, never reveals her true secrets. Or her intentions." I said in as dark of a tone as I could muster, without completely losing it, of course, "You may see Ruby as a sweet, innocent girl, but put her in a prank war and she's a homicidal maniac out for blood and glory."

"And what about you?" She asked.

"I'm still me, just more... I don't know, secretive? I'm definitely not to be trusted... Why do you want to know?" My curiosity had peaked with her curiosity. "You've practically been interrogating me since you woke up. Why?"

"Well," She said with a sigh, "I just want to make sure you stay with us, you know? Something like this... all of this... It can mess you up. I want to make sure your focused on us and making it through to the end." She said, whole heartedly.

"Thanks, Velvet. I'm fine, really. I've been through much worse than..." I looked around, taking in the surroundings. Buildings were destroyed or severely damaged. A massive fissure ran through the earth, going down about 15 feet. Cars were smashed, windows blown out, blood was everywhere. I could only hope it was Grimm blood, but there were no bodies.

"... Than this." I sounded slightly dejected as it finally hit me. The scope of the damage. But still, Velvet was right. I have to stay in the game, keep strong and hope for the best.

"Hey, I don't mean to ruin a nice moment between friends, but we have an issue..." Yatsu-Hashi broke. "We have no way around these buildings. We can't climb through the rubble and we can't go through. There's also no alley available." I looked to Velvet. She looked lost for words. If only we had a map to give us a quick detour...

... I am an idiot.

"Our scrolls." Everyone turned to me. "The leader for Team SLBR had sent a map to our scrolls. I think it works like a GPS..."

"That's right!" exclaimed Velvet, "Good idea, Yang!" She instantly went to her pockets, but all of them turned up empty. She looked to Yatsu-Hashi who knew her question before she could open her mouth.

"It probably fell out during the earthquake. Mine is shattered. Yang?" I checked my pocket... Well what do ya know?

"Luck's on our side today!" I pulled out my scrolls with glee. We actually had something good going for us. Turning it on, i discovered there were no bars. No way to get a connection...

But the message had still come through.

I pulled up the map of Directus, and found it zoomed out all the way, so i could see the entirety of the city. It was way bigger than I imagined, but the map was easy to navigate. I quickly zoomed in on the Residential District. Having no access to GPS meant we couldn't get live updates of the city. This means that we only know how this place looks pre-quake.

We're walking blind.

"What street are we on?" I asked anyone who was listening.

"We're on Ryan Blvd, and I think 7th street is up ahead." Yatsu-Hashi responded.

Examining the map, i found a great many things of interest. There was the SDC Headquarters on 12th street, we could follow Ryan blvd up to it, but probably face a lot of downed buildings. "Best bet is to follow the fissure, actually. If it keeps running north then we'll take it all the way to the Church... Or Church Street, whichever comes first."

Velvet and Yatsu-Hashi nodded and we all moved towards the deep crack in the earth. Across the street on the other side of the fissure, the land had risen. Probably a good 8 feet, but that's just eye-balling it.

"Hey, Yang," Velvet began, "What time do you have? The suns getting kinda low..."

"It was 7:03 when I checked."

"Thanks, at 7:30 we'll stop and take a rest, check our bearings and figure out the best route." Velvet declared. I liked this, none of us were team leads, so making orders for each other didn't happen. It was all suggestions that everyone could agree on. Not that there's anything wrong with team leads, I just don't like being told what to do a lot.

Glad I was able to lord that concept into Ruby at a young age, or else we would have some trouble.

We descended into the fissure, and began our march North. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>Glynda PoV<p>

"Crewman, how long until this storm passes?"

"It'll pass at around 8:20, ma'am." That was good. The storm is already starting to lighten up. Some communications could get out. We've sent our... thoughts... to General Ironwood, but it still isn't stopping him. Thankfully, however, he did have the decency to pause his quest for total annihilation of Directus to try and figure out what was going on.

We still need to get communications with the kids up, too. Our trackings have found that they were all scattered around the city. But, surprisingly, some were really close to each other. Yang and Weiss were within a mile of each other, while Ren and Pyhrra were also close. We also didn't know who was with whom, but we were able to tell that everyone was in a group of three.

Everyone was accounted for, just... not together...

How do we fix this?

* * *

><p><strong>Oh my god, this is up WAY too damn late! I am so sorry!<strong>

**I am behind on some work... more work then I'd like to be... so, yeah. It's no excuse for anything, I've had some time, but I just... gah...**

**As a token of my apology, I will tell you that with this, the Regroup arc has at the MOST, 2 chapters left. I've put in a lot of timestamps in-story, too. Some of those times (with Ruby's group, for example), WILL be edited. I made some way too late, and some way too early. but the rest are just right.**

**SO, as an apology, I'm going to bust my ass into creative overdrive and give you chapter 10 early (Probably Saturday) and chapter 11 will come on Monday. Monday might be my permanent release day for this story. **

**Aside for all of that, I want to thank you all. As of this chapter there are over 1800 views on this story, 10 follows, and 8 Favorites. Thank you all for your support in this story. I AM seeing this to the end. **

**So, enough of my rambling. Tell me how I did and am doing. **

**ALSO, as I have gotten tired of being a EuphoricDemon (contradiction) I am changing my username. I know that doesn't really matter much, but I just thought you should be aware if you see this story under a different name.**

**Next chapter will be up Saturday, and the one after that will be on time on Monday. This I vow!**


	11. Chapter 10: Reunified part 1

**Going to start this off by saying I goofed. Instead of having two more parts to Regroup, I meant to say Reunified was coming. I just had a mental lapse is all, no big deal. Anyway, Reunified part one is here, I'll see you at the end.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

><p>Reunified part 1<p>

Weiss PoV

This day has been long and taxing. And my... our... objective, was too close for us to give up now. Coco was still outside, blowing off steam. Nora was trying to relax nearby. While me? I was trying to figure out the best route to the SDC HQ. It wasn't far out, but with the amount of Grim we've encountered so far, it would be hell getting there.

After a few moments, Nora and I both noticed that the noise outside had vanished. Fearing the worst, we rushed out, only to see Coco standing over a massive wall of evaporating Grimm bodies. She looked back to us, and chuckled, "I think I ran out of ammo..." She sounded out of breath. Nora helped her inside. Now _she_ needed the rest more than anyone else.

After making sure Coco was all set, Nora came over to me, "What'cha doin, Weiss?"

"Trying t figure out which road would be the best one to get to 12th street." I said without looking up from the map. She nodded, realized I wasn't doing anything fun, and bounced away.

Light only knows where she put all of that energy. She made Ruby look civilized.

... Ruby...

I can only hope for her safety at this point. Someone had to go back for her... And as her teammate it should have been me. Sure we didn't get along in the beginning, but that was only because my father had taught me for my entire life to be a leader. It was all I knew. When Ruby got the position, I was furious. She was so immature...

But then again, so was I.

I hadn't seen her promise, her drive. She had so much potential from the start and I was blind to it. Her being appointed as leader was the best, because she could notice things that I could not. She was more observant, less stubborn... She was a natural leader.

And I am glad to be her teammate.

Shaking these thoughts from my mind, I looked back at the clock. 7:10. "Hey," I started, "I hate to be the one to do this, but we should start to get going." Coco slowly rose from her chair, and Nora was close to jumping out of her skin. "We need to go out of the building and just head left. That'll take us Northward, and right to 12th street."

"Nice job, Weiss." Coco said, patting my shoulder as she walked out. Her chain gun was put away. That didn't mean she was totally useless, however.

We walked out of the building. The sun had almost completely set. Few light posts still stood, out of the few that did, only about 3 had their lights still working. It was good, kept up some kind of illumination. As we marched, Nora had Magnhild in its hammer form keeping a readied stance. She didn't want to be ambushed in this place. Neither did I.

We had walked for quite a while. The apartment area was massive, but thankfully it was a straight-line shot to 12th street from the center building. As we marched, fires raged all around, and the smell of gas was palpable. It was at this point where we saw the most beautiful sight, ever. The film industry couldn't have made this moment any better.

Under a flickering light post, we saw... A car... But not any car, a military jeep! With the keys still in the ignition! We all ran over to it, and I think Coco shed a tear or two.

"Do you girls know what this means?" She asked us. "We don't have to walk anymore! YEAH!"

The moment was truly glorious. We all enter the jeep, Coco at the wheel, Nora in the back, and myself at shotgun. I didn't know how I felt with Coco driving, but I'm sure she was better than Nora...

The engine started and Coco sat back in her seat, "God damn I missed that sound..." She said to herself, but loud enough for the rest of us to hear. As she put the car into drive, there was a boom, that came from right behind us.

The gas that we had smelt earlier must have found a flame. The entire area behind us lit up like a second sun, "No time to enjoy the moment, Coco, DRIVE DRIVE!" The flames were gaining, fast. It was something out of a horror movie. Coco punched it, driving as fast as possible. When we noticed that the heat hadn't followed, we stopped and surveyed the damage we had just narrowly avoided.

Half of the apartment area was in flames. I looked on in sorrow, knowing that my mother and uncles once home had just been completely obliterated AND seared into ash. If that's not overkill...

"Well..." Nora started, "That happened..."

"Yeah... I got nothin," Coco said. We were all at a loss for words over what we had just witnessed. Light only knows that if we didn't find this car, we would be ashes too. We all sat back, taking in our fortune. After a moment, Coco put it back into drive and we headed off.

After a moment of driving through and around obstacles we had made it to 12th street. We could see the SDC building, it was only a half a mile up the road, and not all of the buildings down this particular street were gone. Only minor damage. Coco shot for the building, and that's when we saw it.

"COCO, FISSURE!" Was all I could yell. She slammed on the brakes, but was too late. We skid to a near halt, to which we all bailed from the jeep. It crashed into the easily 15-foot split in the earth. We all looked at each other, only to laugh.

Someone, somewhere, did NOT want us to make it anywhere.

We collected ourselves and started to walk again. It _was_ a nice car ride while it lasted.

We approached the gaping maw in the earth, both Nora and Coco turned to me. They had to say nothing, I knew what they wanted. I made a number of Glyphs, making a bridge across. Nora quickly ran over while Coco once again patted me on the back.

As I crossed, I noticed something... off... about the SDC building. It was...

Leaning...

The building had suffered heavy damage, and was now leaning over. It looked like it could fall at any minute, or it could stay up. I wasn't sure how it would hold to a massive quake so it won't last long. I ran out ahead of my group, more concerned for my uncle than myself.

Coco and Nora weren't far behind.

As we approached the building, we noticed something. There was blood. Lots of it, in the lobby, but no bodies. We all drew our weapons as the building moaned. "Schnee, we can't do this... Let's just leave the ammo cache for later. I'll get more elsewhere."

"If you want to go the Church, fine. But I need to find someone." Coco just stared at me. She was trying to process what I had said.

"Weiss, I'll stay with you." Nora proclaimed. I nodded, thanking her.

"I don't know what you're after, but I'm not leaving either of you behind." Coco said with a passion. "If you stay, I'll stay."

"Thank you both... We need to go up." They just stared at me blankly. "The top story is where I need to go... There's someone here I need to find." With that, I marched right to the stairs and began my ascent. Nora hot on my tail. As we rose to the 2nd story, we had discovered that this was where the building had partially collapsed. Everything from this point up was on an odd angle.

I started to climb up towards the 3rd story when I heard a click. I looked back at Nora, who had only froze in place. "W-Weiss..." She had actual fear in her voice. This girl had faced a Deathstalker head-on, rode an Ursa, and had more energy than a child... and she was scared. I drew Myrtenaster and brought up a glyph. There was a man behind her holding a pistol to her head.

"I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but you need to leave." He said firmly.

"Not gonna happen!" I exclaimed. Where was Coco in all of this?

"Look, I won't say it again, you're in danger here... Leave. Now."

"Or..." A voice came from behind the man. It was Coco. "You can drop your gun before I leave nothing left of you..." Her gun unfolded. I guess she found the ammo. With a sigh the man dropped his pistol and rose his hands.

"You three are making a mistake." He said, "Everything here is fried, you can't get any information..."

"Information?' I said, "We're not here for that."

"Then what are you here... Oh my..." Our eyes met, and we saw the resemblance instantly.

"Uncle Chill!"

"Weiss!" With a cry of glee I jumped into his embrace. I knew he was here from the start. "Why are you in Directus?"

"We got called here to help with the evac of civilians." I explained. "When the quake hit, my only thought was to get your stubborn ass out of the city. These are some of my friends, we all got separated from the rest. That's Nora and the one who held you and chain-gunpoint is Coco."

"Hello to you both." He said. "I'm glad you're here... And I'm sorry you're here, too.' He said with empathy. "I was about to leave, right after making sure the building was clear. I even had my own hunter team to escort me... Team SLBR..."

"SLBR team is here? Great! We can..."

"No, Coco," He said, grimly, "Not anymore..." He pointed downstairs. "They sent me up here to hide shortly after the quake. Some Grimm made it over the wall... They..." He didn't finish.

He didn't have to.

"Damn..." Coco said, "They were a damn good team too." After a moment, we all sighed, and moved downstairs.

"Coco, when you got more ammo, where was the room?"

"Oh, I didn't get ammo. I was bluffing." Damn, she was good.

"Wait," Chill said, "You had no ammo... at all?!"

"Yup." She responded with a smile. Nora also found humor in this. All I can think is that Coco should play poker.

"Uncle Chill... Is the ammo storage open?" I asked. We were dangerously low on everything. We needed that storage room, and he was the only one who knew the code.

"Yes, follow me. We'll get you all situated and move out." We moved to the back of the lobby and found a thick looking steel door. Chill punched in a few numbers and the door opened. "Gotta love backup generators for things like this." He chuckled.

The door opened, revealing a plethora of weapons and ammo. Dust rounds and cartridges. We all stocked up on everything. All SDC buildings around the world had a cache of armaments and ammunition. After the White Fang attacks intensified we feared for the safety of our workers, be it in a factory or at a desk job. They were all prepared for the worst if the worst ever happened.

We all charged in, Coco drooled over some of the ammunition we had. I know Ruby and Yang would have a field day here... Ruby for the weapons, Yang for the really big explosives. Taking what they needed, Coco and Nora both left the cache vault, leaving me and Uncle Chill.

"Hey, Weiss..." He began, "You need any dust for Myrtenaster?"

I nodded. I had been running low for a while, which was why I didn't want to be thrust into any fight. If even one of my dust chambers were to be completely depleted it would be game over for me.

Uncle Chill tossed me a few cartridges. At least 2 of every dust type Myrtenaster used. I nodded in thanks before exiting with him close behind. Coco and Nora had locked and loaded their weapons while I prepared mine. Uncle Chill was carrying a weapon of his own: A rail gun sheath with a single-edged blade, running off of Lightning dust. He may not have been a hunter but he would be damned if he wasn't prepared for anything and everything.

"Ok girls," He began first, "We have to get to the Church of the Light by midnight. If I recall correctly, the last of the evac ships will leave then. If we are not there, then we _will_ be left behind. It's about 7:23 now so we should start moving."

"Ok then," Coco began, "We need to start heading out. Mister... What do you want me to call you?"

"Just call me 'Chill', that name seems to fit me more than my given name." He said proudly. I think out of all of his accomplishments the one thing that stood out to him was his nickname.

"Ok then, Chill, we will pick up where SLBR team left off and be your escorts to the Church." She turned her attention to me, "You know, if you wanted to come here and get him, you should have just said so, instead of giving us the 'I will know my surroundings better from there' deal."

I blushed a little at her imitation of me. "I didn't know what you two would say if I told you. So I didn't. Look where it got us, right?" I asked Chill. He nodded with a smile.

"I wouldn't trust my life to anyone but my niece and her friends. Now, I hate to be rude, but I think we have spent too much important time here. Let's get mo-"

Before he could finish, there was a crash and a yelp from outside. Instincts kicking in I pushed my uncle back against a wall, pinning him using my arm. Coco stepped in front of him while Nora had taken the space furthest from me, but also in a position to protect him. I was closest to the main door, which led me to believe that I was to take point.

I looked to Coco who only nodded. I knew what it meant. Drawing Myrtenaster I walked away from the corner and closer to the door. I heard footsteps. One pair loud, another very soft. Light only knew what was on the other side of the door.

I jumped against the wall. The door, already broken down, was wide open. I was in the perfect ambush spot. I readied my blade, and saw it...

I jumped at the first thing that walked through that door, only to be met by a swift and fiery punch, but luckily a swift glyph stopped it, but also stopped us all... Wait...

Fiery punch?

Was it?

15 minutes earlier

Yang PoV

Trekking through this mess of a path that we decided to take was hell. It was partially flooded from the sewer lines that had broke when the earth split.

I already hated the feeling of wet socks, but this is just ridiculous.

We hadn't been down in the crevasse for long, but we were moving slowly. We didn't want to make too much noise, and with water up to our ankles, that meant a very slow move. We had seen a few Grimm along the way, but thankfully none had noticed us. I guess the scent of sewer and broken pipes drove them away. Good to know for later.

"Yatsu, where do you think we're at?" Velvet asked.

"Couldn't tell you..." He responded. We haven't been down here for long, so I'd say probably 9th or 10th str-"

**BOOM**

A thunderous explosion rocked us where we stood. We were afraid it was an aftershock, but the second sun of a fireball told us otherwise.

"Oh my god..." I gaped in awe at the sight. Someone, somewhere, got _pissed_.

"We have to keep moving," Yatsu-Hashi said, "If we hurry we may be able to figure out what happened there."

Velvet and I nodded. It was the best thing we could do. As we kept walking on, we came to an impasse. The fissure had split into two paths here. Both kept moving North, but in an easterly and westerly direction.

"Northeast for the Church." Velvet said confidently. We all agreed and started walking the left path. as we moved, there was another crash. This one from in front of us. It was too dark to see, however, so we could only assume part of a building had collapsed. We pressed on, and in not a moments time, we saw something in the fissure...

A military jeep?

"Hmm, must've fallen in when the world split..." Yatsu-Hashi said curiously.

"But, wouldn't that have made this thing... I don't know, a tad more banged up?" I asked. It was an honest question. I figured that this thing would've been more crushed if it fell in with the opening of the fissure. But I have been wrong before...

"Plus, the car is still running." Velvet pointed out, "It would have stopped long ago if it fell in with the quake. It was just used... Maybe this is what caused the crash?"

It had to be. This gave me hope. Hope that our friends are _alive_, they're out there, somewhere. "Ok, I think this is where we should get out." I claimed. Velvet and Yatsu-Hashi agreed. Yatsu picked up Velvet and tossed her over onto the road. He looked at me, and I waved him off, "I got this." Using my gauntlets I powered myself over the top. Yatsu-Hashi using the wreckage of the jeep to get over. For a big guy, he had a huge vertical leap.

"Ok, I think that's the SDC building... If I'm not mistaken, they have arms and ammo in every building, in case of White Fang attacks."

"Yang, how do you know this?" Velvet asked.

"Weiss told me back at the end of the first semester." Back after we found Blake and became a team again, Weiss told us of why the buildings have them, and why we should never attack a building. Blake was glad she never went _directly_ at the SDC after learning of that horrible truth.

We moved to one end of the road and hugged the walls. We didn't know what was inside that place or who. We readied ourselves, I took point. Moving up slowly to the front doors, I heard a loud crash from behind me. Looking back, Velvet had jumped into Yatsu-Hashi's arms, who had her tucked under his body from an absolutely massive chunk of...

...Car? There was a car in the 2nd story of a store... What?

Never mind, we'll figure out the logic behind it later. I swiftly moved against the wall closest to the door. Signaling Velvet and Yatsu, They moved over to me. Stacking up, I gave a nod. Velvet readied a spell in her hand, while Yatsu gripped his blade.

I began to enter, slowly. Off the corner of my eye, I saw the tip of a blade thrust at my face. Meeting it with a grab by one hand and a retaliatory punch by another. Whoever this was dodged my strike, and put a glyph right under the both of us...

Actually, it was a big glyph, because it stopped Velvet, Yatsu and myself in our tracks.

Wait, glyphs?

Looking at the one I saw fighting, I met cold, white eyes. Looking at my hand, I noticed the hilt of her blade, her white outfit, her snowflake glyph...

"...Weiss?"

"Hey Yang, good to see you."

"You have no idea," I chuckled, "Wanna let us go?"

"Hmmmmm, sure, I guess." She said. "I didn't want to be tangled up with you anyway."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" She only shot me an amused look. Her glyph dropped, and I pulled her in for a bone-crushing embrace.

From behind her, I heard Yatsu and Velvet be called out. It was Coco's voice. I also noticed Nora, standing in front of a man I didn't recognize.

"Aw," Nora said, dejected, "I don't have any teammates to hug."

Looking to Weiss, she could only nod. She put a glyph under Nora and pulled her in for an even bigger embrace. I lifted the two in the air by the waist. I didn't want to let go. If these two were safe... Hell, if _all_ of us were safe, then the others would be safe, too.

I just knew it.

"Uh, Yang?"

"Yes, Weiss?"

"Can you put me down, now?"

"Hmmmmm, sure, I guess." I put both of them down and just smiled. The man who was behind Nora just moments ago finally walked out, after noticing our little team moment was done. "Hey, Weiss, who's this?"

"Oh, Yang, Velvet, Yatsu-Hashi, this is my uncle-"

"Call me Chill."

"-And the head of the SDC's Vale Branch." Weiss finished, unmoved by his interruption. Weiss told us very little of him, only that he was very laid back. Based on his attire, I could tell he was.

"Nice to meet you," I said, extending a hand, "I'm Yang."

"Pleasure is mine. I take it you're her teammate?" I nodded, "Great. That's one of four. Hopefully I can meet the rest." He chuckled. "Do any of you three need ammo or weapons? We're abandoning the building, so if you want any the door is wide open back there."

"I'll show them. Follow me." Weiss said, gesturing with her hand. Coco and Nora, already topped off stayed at the door to keep everything clear.

After a few minutes, we had all gotten caught up with Weiss. She told us that it was her group that was _near_ the explosion, but didn't set it off. She couldn't fool me. It was also Coco who crashed the jeep in the fissure. Velvet laughed at that. Coco was always bragging about what a terrific driver she was.

Weiss also told us about how many Grimm they've faced so far. Well, at least we'll be busy.

"So, we're just going to join you three in escorting your uncle?" I asked Weiss. She nodded. At least we can say we rescued _someone_ when all of this is done.

Together we exited the SDC building. Preparing our weapons collectively, we nodded to each other and began our journey.

We're almost home.

Glynda PoV

"Professor Goodwitch, two groups have met up with each other at the SDC building!"

Well done, kids. "Let me guess, Yang and her group met with Weiss and hers?"

The crewman nodded. Excellent. I rushed out of the room to Ozpin's office. He would love the great news.

As I enter, he stared me straight in the eyes with a look of great happiness. "Professor Ozpin... Why are you-"

"Glynda... I know how to help those kids."

* * *

><p><strong>Ozpins got a plan, Hell yeah.<strong>

**So this chapter didn't take me long to write. I started immediately after the previous chapter was done, and didn't stop until this chapter was complete. Mainly because I enjoyed writing it. **

**Uncle Chill joins the club! Hype!**

**Also, his blade is a Katana while the sheeth is a rail gun powered by dust. OP? Maybe, but the guy runs the Vale branch of the SDC, he's not gonna be in control and NOT have a weapon of his own. **

**For those wondering, yes, Ironwood will be making a play soon, but he decided to hear out Ozpin for now. Next chapter I'll touch up on it more, along with Ozpins great idea. **

**Well, until next time. I'm going to go and try to finish up Mondays chapter. After then we'll be onto a regular schedule of new chapters every Monday night.**

**Until next time.**


	12. Chapter 11: Reunified part 2

Reunified Part 2

Ruby PoV

We had been moving for a while. Well, Jaune and Pyhrra had been moving. I had been limping along, trying to keep up. Both of them tried to offer help in carrying me, but I refused. I don't need help right now.

My leg has been progressively getting worse since Jaune first healed it. I don't think he put enough aura into it, but I don't want him to. He needs it more than I do. I just have to fight through the pain and limp on.

We came to a stop at a massive fissure that split Church Street in two. Across this gaping maw was a lot of buildings that had toppled over. We looked at each other, everyone was thinking it. It would be easier to jump into the fissure and go under the damage instead of going over or through it. It was safer that way.

Jaune jumped in first while Pyhrra helped me. She jumped next, then it was my turn. Trying my best not to land on my bad leg, I jumped. Jaune, however, caught me before I could hit the ground. I nodded in appreciation, to which he smiled.

I was nice to get the old Jaune back.

"Ok," Pyhrra spoke first, "We have a few tunnels here, which I'm only going to assume are sewers. They run through the fissure and under all that-" she pointed up, "-above us."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked. Jaune opted to go first, and called for us when he knew it was clear. Pyhrra helped me through. After a moment in the awful smelling shortcut, we were in... another fissure?

"It must've split somewhere down there," Jaune said, pointing down what I took to be south, "That or another crack started north and worked its way south."

"Doesn't matter," Pyhrra said, "Let's just get out of here." I agreed with her. Jaune climbed out first, using a few dangling cords to help himself up. Lord only knows where those cords were from or what they were used for. He looked back down into the pit and nodded to Pyhrra. "Ruby, Pyhrra and I are going to help you out of there." Before I could respond, Pyhrra lifted me from the waist up to Jaune. Taking his hand, he pulled me out of that terrible smelling abyss.

Pyhrra nearly jumped out of the pit. "Show off." She chuckled at my off-handed comment. As we collected ourselves and prepared to move once again, we heard something... Bad.

Snarling. Growling. A howl, too.

"We've got company." Jaune said, pulling out his blade. Pyhrra also prepared Milo and Akuno, while I put Crescent Rose into its shotgun form. As I did dozens of Beowolves jumped over the wreckage of buildings and through some walls.

Taking what shots I could, I brought down any that dared jump. Jaune and Pyhrra would have the ground game. Before we knew it we were being overrun. The amount was just too much.

"I might be running low!"

"Use your shots well, Ruby!" Easier said than done, Jaune. Ursa started bursting through walls. I guess we _really_ look appetizing. We took a few steps back, it was impossible to hold any kind of ground with all of this crap around us. I looked around for anything that could be of use. Looking back, I found a building still standing, but boarded up. It looked like it had been abandoned for a while.

Perfect.

I tried to break down the door, but to no avail. It was boarded up good, and I couldn't build up strength with one leg to break it down. I used Crescent Rose as a battering ram and broke it down by sheer force. "Jaune, Pyhrra! Through here!" They turned back to me and abandoned their would-be last stand. The massive amount of Grimm foolishly followed.

Right into my trap.

Pyhrra and I readied our guns while Jaune used Crocea Mors as cover of us. Any Grimm that came through that door was cut down instantly. After no longer than a minute, the Grimm decided we weren't worth it and fled.

"Ruby..." Pyhrra began, out of breath.

"Yeah?"

"You... You are a genius!" She instantly pulled me into a Yang-like bear hug, picking me up off the ground. She was taking notes from Yang, wasn't she?

"It was nothing, really." I tried, weakly. It was hard to breath like this. "I just thought it would've been an escape route, I didn't think about a phalanx until you two walked in."

"Doesn't matter when you thought of it, it was still amazing." Jaune broke in. tapping Pyhrra on the shoulder, "And, uh, I think she needs some oxygen."

Realizing how tight she had been squeezing me, Pyhrra finally let go. I let in a deep breath, enjoying the much needed air. "Sorry."

"It's ok. I'm used to it with Yang. So, where to, now?"

"Well, those Grimm are still out there, so we're gonna have to take a different route to get to the Church." Jaune said.

"Let's just move through the buildings. Jaune, use those stairs to climb up to the third story, and yell down when you know it's clear. Pyhrra, help me up. We're going to jump to the next building over." I said. Jaune stared at me blankly, though.

"Why do you get to be leader?"

"Because I let you play leader, it's only fair for it to be my turn." If the playground rules can work for my team, maybe they can work here.

Pyhrra was intrigued by my declaration, too, "So does this mean _I _can be leader?"

"Sure," I smirked, "It's only fair." She started laughing maniacally. Oh dear God what have I unleashed?

Jaune had started moving up the stairs while Pyhrra helped me over to them. We started climbing before he was done. We both knew that this place had nothing inside except for lost dreams. I wonder why this place was abandoned. It looked fine to me...

"Clear, you can come on u- Oh... You're half way up... Ok. Be careful, I think this place may not be in the best of conditions."

"You don't say, Jaune?" I said sarcastically, "What was your first clue, the boarded up windows, or the fire and smoke dama..." I looked at Pyhrra who met my gaze. Fire and smoke damage... It makes sense now.

"Ah shit." She picked me up without a second thought and rushed me up the stairs, not taking any chances on being in that stairway for longer then we have to be. Getting to the third floor we damn near ran all the way to the next building. Stopping in what appeared to be an old kitchen she finally put me down.

"Nice hustle." I said. Pyhrra blushed slightly at my compliment. Before Jaune could join us the floor creaked.

"Damnit..." I muttered under my breath, "Why can't it ever be easy?" With that, the floor gave way. I thought for sure I was a goner, until I stopped falling half-way through. I was dangling off of something. Looking back to my hood, I noticed it was caught up on an old support beam.

"Oh, the jokes that can be made..."

"Ruby! You ok?" Jaune shouted down.

"Fine! Just a little hung up, is all. Talk about your support beam." Yang would be so proud, two for the price of one! Though I don't think Jaune or Pyhrra found humor in it. They used the stairs to get to me as I was hanging off of a beam on the second floor.

"Well, that was interesting." Jaune said, "You're just a trouble maker today, aren't you?"

"Eh, it has a tendency to find me." Pyhrra and Jaune broke into laughter after that. "Oh you found that funny but the 'hung up' comment get's nothing? Damn your picky."

"I think it's just a question of timing." Jaune explained, "Come on you two, we should probably get moving. Let's try not to do any crazy stunts anymore, ok?" He looked at me after saying that.

"No promises." With that Pyhrra put my arm around her and started supporting me. Walking down the stairs we no longer heard any growling outside, which indicated that the Grimm had left. Jaune was first to the door with Crocea Mors drawn. After taking a peak outside, he then took a step, then another, before gesturing that it was clear.

"We shouldn't stay in the open for too long," he said, "Let's move in a diagonal shape from building to building."

"Good idea, Jaune go first, Ruby and I will stay back until it's clear." Pyhrra said. With that Jaune nodded and moved to the next building. Pyhrra set me down by the door and began to check for more wounds. "That fall might have opened something. It'll take Jaune a moment, he'll probably check the whole place."

I chuckled. When he had to be Jaune was a very impressive leader. He was learning as he went and it went very well very fast. I guess Pyhrra's been helping with that. He just needed a confidence boost is all.

"Well, you look good for now," She said, just as Jaune whistled for us, "but if anything starts hurting let me know." I nodded. I hadn't felt anything, but I don't blame her for her concern.

We hustled across to the next building, jumping through the door. Jaune, in turn, jumped out and started moving. I figured this was as good of a chance as any to get something off of my mind.

"Hey Pyhrra?"

"Hm?"

"What's up with Ren and Nora?"

"What do you mean?" She stared right at me with a quizzical expression. Trying my hardest not to blush at Ren's name, I continued.

"Like, what's _up _with them? You know what I'm trying to get at?" I can only hope she's picking up what I'm trying to say.

"Oh, you want to know if they're going out?" As she asked Jaune once again whistled. She picked me up and we started moving. "Why do you want to know, Ruby?"

"Oh, you know, teenage curiosity." What the hell kind of excuse was that? Well, whatever it was it worked. As we got into the next building, Pyhrra stopped Jaune.

"Ruby wants to know what's up with Ren and Nora." She explained.

"Oh God, hell if we know," He claimed, "They just keep saying they aren't _'together_ together," and avoid the topic. But we don't pry, so I just assume they aren't actually together." He took a deep breath after that explanation. After a nod in thanks he looked out to the street. "Damn, we got more Grimm out there... We can do one more pass but will have to move through that alley over there and go around." We all agreed that this was the best course of action. Jaune went out first, rushing to the other side of the street.

We didn't know how far we were from the Church, but it couldn't be far. How long does it take to walk 8 miles...

Let's not answer that.

After a moment Pyhrra and I left. It was more of a speed walk, while not trying to garner attention from the Grimm. It worked. They must've smelled something better than us.

"So Ruby, why did you really want to know?" Pyhrra asked, with an almost sly tone in her voice. I think she saw through my charade.

"What do you mean?"

"Normally someone doesn't ask about another's relationship unless they want to..."

"Pyhrra!" I almost yelled. I think my cover on this is blown. She only laughed, while Jaune shook his head.

"Come on you two, we can figure out Ruby's crush later," Really, Jaune? Not helping, "Let's cut through this building here." He broke down the door. We moved in, only to hear voices.

My voice went low, "You guys hear that?" They nodded. It was coming from a room on the next floor. We were currently in what appeared to be an office building. Taking the stairs to the 2nd floor, the voices stopped. We looked at each other and drew our weapons. Light only knew what was beyond the door.

We opened it, only to find a cubicle room. Dad always called this place a 'Desk Jockey farm,' Whatever that meant. There was only one closed door. The plate on the door said 'HR'. We readied ourselves and stacked at the door. Jaune in front, Pyhrra behind him, and myself behind her.

Jaune reached, grabbed, and turned the knob.

The door blew open, flying outwards towards the office.

Blake PoV

Night had fallen faster than we had hoped.

Ren, Fox and myself quickly moved across the city streets, or what was left of them. It was our goal to get to at least Church Street by 8 o'clock. But being as far from it as possible didn't help.

Our move was to get to where we were at before the quake backtrack all the way to where Church Street intersected with 6th. Tougher than it was, with the apartment collapse and a massive army of Grimm at our backs.

I have no clue where they came from but they were here in massive numbers. Every now and again we turned to fight them off but it was too difficult. There was just too many.

We finally made it to Church street, and not a moment to spare. Moving through the fallen apartment's remains left the Grimm at a loss. They couldn't fit into its confined areas. Score one for us.

We moved through the building and almost nothing had been spoken. Not one word since we left the mattress shop. I kinda enjoyed it, too. No one to interrupt me or break me of my thoughts.

Then again, I kinda missed that aspect. Yang's boisterous attitude and Ruby's innocent nature went hand-in-hand with each other. Those two were a riot, I had to admit. Weiss didn't really like it but coming from a stuck-up family doesn't really help. Though I enjoyed solitude I also came to enjoy the fun loving sisters that I had been blessed with as teammates. It meant there was always something for us to do, or some fun to be had somewhere.

School work be damned if even one of the pair had been bored. Yang would do anything to get a laugh out of us all, while Ruby would make subtle jokes. She even left a couple of pranks for Yang. She went on about how they were Prank War champs at Signal, but never went to see who was the best.

Whenever Yang activated one of Ruby's traps someone else would always laugh. That put the blame on anyone _but _Ruby. She was sneaky alright.

"Ok," I heard a voice breaking me from my thoughts, it was Fox's, "Run, you know where we are?"

"Right now, 8th and Church." Ren said, still as stoic as ever, "We can move up Church, but we'd use more energy trying to move around those buildings. There's a fissure down 8th street that appears to be heading North. We can use that as a short cut."

I didn't even see that fissure. Ren had really good eyes. Fox nodded and we moved down 8th street. After a short jog we found the massive split in the earth. We all turned to each other, nodded, and jumped in.

After a while we found ourselves down 11th, close to Church Street. The fissure seemed to end here, however. We brought ourselves out of the hole and into trouble.

Grimm; Beowolves, Ursi, even a few Borbatusk's. They had all locked onto us. We were in for a fight. I drew first, opening fire onto a few of the first Beowolves who were in front of us. Fox went into a readied stance and charged in.

Ren drew his weapons and opened fire on the few Grimm on the sides. We were putting in a hurting but they kept coming. Off the corner of my eye I noticed Fox get take down by an oversized Ursa. I rushed to his aide, separating blade from gun, and slashing through the unsuspecting Ursa.

"Thanks." was all I heard as Fox went back into the fray. Ren had held his own well. This fight was over before it started. The Grimm realized this and fled, bursting through and jumping over buildings. We had no idea where they were going, but we didn't care.

"Hey..." Fox's voice broke, "We need... To find... A place to rest again..." He was clearly out of breath. He must've over exerted himself. Ren instantly rushed over to help him up. I went out to find a place to rest. Nothing was available to us, buildings were either too damaged or just plain unsafe. Until...

An old office building stood, unmoved by the events of today. I waved to Ren and Fox, who instantly made their way to me. We broke the glass door and made our way in. There was nothing on the first floor to help rest, nor did it seem like a good idea to stay out in the open, so we moved up to the second story. It was a cubicle room, with a Human Resources office to the side. Whoever worked here had an awesome HR person.

They had tropical shirts hung up in the office, a couch, a flat-screen TV which had fallen on the floor...

A little piece of me died on the inside after seeing that.

Ren set Fox down on the couch, then sat behind the desk. I stayed by the door, keeping guard. Ren stayed as stone-faced as ever, but something stayed on his mind. He wanted to say something but could not find the words to ask.

So he didn't... Fox broke the silence first. "So, how have your grades been?"

"Really, Fox?" I asked, "I understand thing are a little odd right now, but we don't need small talk to lighten any kind of mood."

"Hm, you're right. It's just I'm not used to being in a group where _nobody talks._ I'm used to someone else breaking the ice."

"You're doing a good job right now." Ren said, still stone faced. I wouldn't say he was emotionless, he was just in a constant state of calm. Nothing seemed to faze him.

"Yeah, I guess you can say I am, aren't I? Huh, who woulda thought..." He almost got lost in his own words. It seems as though he surprised even himself. "Ren, what time is it?"

"Hm? Oh, let me check." He pulled out his scroll and began to check the time. "almost 7:35. Why?"

Before Fox could explain, I heard a boom. Not like a bomb, but more of a forceful entry. Someone broke down the door.

"Oh, shit." Fox said, "We got company."

"Quiet, Fox." I said, shushing him. I wanted to see if I could get a good idea of who these guys were, or what they wanted. I assumed Military, but I didn't want to be sure.

"Maybe it's a rescue?" Fox suggested.

"Not likely. We would have heard Bullheads above." Ren explained. I once again shushed them. Our guests were getting closer. Fox moved off of the couch and to the door. He put his hand on it, gesturing for Ren and I to get ready. Whoever these guys were had a rude welcoming coming in.

The footsteps stopped outside. It appears hiding was no option. Drawing my weapon, I tensed my muscles and readied myself. The doorknob moved slightly, which led to Fox putting a little bit of Aura into it, causing it to fly outwards.

Our turn.

I jumped out, with Ren behind me only to be met by a Shield to my chest, knocking me down. I looked up to see a yellow shield and an orange spear in my face.

Wait... Yellow shield? Orange spear?

Ren was right behind the assailant, pointing one gun at her and another at someone else. Fox was next to him in an assault position on a third. After a moment, the dust settled.

"looks like I win, Blake." I heard a familiar voice...

"Not exactly, Pyhrra..." I had Gambol Shroud's gun pointed at her gut. She looked down to see this and laughed.

"Well played, indeed." She helped me up. Ren put Stormflower away, as Ruby and Jaune came into light. Ruby put away her gun while Jaune seemed to have the upper hand on Fox. We all stood down however, trying to get untangled from our standoff.

"So..." I began, "It's certainly been a while."

Glynda PoV

I chased after Ozpin. He had almost been going a mile a minute. Oobleck must've been sharing his coffee. We made it to the ships locker room. That's when it hit me.

Locker Rockets.

"I see you get it, now." Ozpin said, reading my expression.

"Genius, sir... But, how do we..."

"We stuff it full of supplies; first aide, ammo, food water, everything. Then we put a few replacement scrolls in, hardwired to the ship so they have constant communications with us. Then we launch it to a point in-between the groups so they all converge on it. If they see it, they'll know it's us and go for it. They'll all be reunited from there and move to the Church!"

I sat, awestruck.

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Ozpin chuckled, "You didn't have any coffee, Glynda." Of course. "Crewman, did you get that list?"

The crewman nodded, "Food, water, first aide, scrolls. Anything else?"

"Yes. Make sure the locker is overridden so it doesn't require a code once someone approaches it. We'll need to open it for them if they have a chance at getting the supplies inside."

"Way ahead of you, sir. I'll get on it." The crewman left in a flash. I looked at the clock; 7:43. The day had been long, but nowhere near done.

"Sir, I have to get to the Command Room."

"Go, Glynda. I'll make sure everything is delivered safely. If you get into contact with Ironwood... Well, you know what to tell him."

I nodded and left. It was almost over. Soon we'd have our students home.

* * *

><p><strong>I almost forgot to post this. Oops.<strong>

**I feel bad. I feel like I kinda forced an ending with our 2 trios meeting. But I think I'm going to expound on that a but more next chapter. It was getting kinda drawn out. I didn't want it to be so... I dunno, long-winded? **

**Whatever.**

**Ozpin's plan is now in motion! That'll be seen in action next chapter too. Along with a little friend from across the sea.**

**I think that's it, really. I do intend on making next chapter be the end for the Reunified Arc. I don't think the next Arc has a name, so it's back to chapter titles. And I'm not sure about it yet, but I do believe I'm also going to give some equal time to both groups, without going back and forth a million times. Thank you time stamps. That decision probably saved me and you readers some sanity to understand.**

**Lastly, I intend to make an update chapter to explain what's going on, in case you got lost or I made a plot-hole by mistake.**

**Hope you all enjoyed. Thanks for reading.**


	13. Chapter 12: Reunified Part 3

Reunified Part 3

Glynda PoV

"Ready? Launch!"

On Ozpin's orders, the locker rocket was sent high into the sky, flying to the city of Directus. With it many supplies that would help all teams that were sent down there. But still, I wondered...

"How do you expect them to find it when they are still separated?"

"I don't, Glynda. I just hope they all see it coming." With that, I nodded and we made our way to the Command Room, waiting to see how our plan would pan0 out.

* * *

><p>Blake PoV<p>

Pyhrra was out in the front of the group, sitting at the door. Next to her was Jaune, and on the other side of the door was Fox. I was at the end of the group with Ren and Ruby. I didn't know the extent of Ruby's injuries, but being her teammate I wouldn't let anyone else take care of her. Ren stayed by us, mostly in case something happens. He said "We should always keep someone at the rear who isn't hurt, or carrying someone else."

It was a good thought, so I allowed it.

After a moment of examination, Pyhrra and Fox ran out first, Jaune close behind, but closer to the door. I moved up, Ruby in tow. I could tell she didn't like having someone help, but she also realized that she would slow the rest of the group down without it. I can't help but chuckle whenever I think about it. Yang always said Ruby had a tad too much pride for her own good.

"Ok," Pyhrra's voice rang out, "We're clear." We cleared out of the building. The sun had set, and the moon was our only natural light. Actually, it was our only light, period. There wasn't much left out on the streets.

"Ow, damnit!" I looked to Ruby who had only clenched her leg in pain. I didn't realize how bad it was. I dropped to my knees, giving her more leverage. She too dropped down, in visible pain. Jaune almost immediately ran over and... Wait...

"What the...? BACK OFF!"

Jaune went flying. Pyhrra and Ruby started to break out laughing while Ren just sighed. Fox stood in disbelief. I don't think he realized how strong I am.

"Blake..." Ruby said, almost hyperventilating from laughing so hard, "He was actually trying to help." She had tears in her eyes as I tried to stop her from falling over. I have no idea what's going on.

"That's twice we forgot!" Pyhrra said, literally rolling on the floor.

"Wait, WHAT? What's going on?!" I demanded answers.

"Ok, Blake," Ruby said, regaining her composure, "Jaune's aura can help heal me. He tried doing this earlier, and I kicked..." She burst out laughing again, putting her head on my shoulder so she wouldn't fall. "I kicked him in the face with my good leg!" She exclaimed through her laughing fit. By this point Jaune finally made his way over, clearly not amused.

"Uh... Jaune... I, uh..." How do you apologize for something like that?

"Save it." He said bluntly, "I guess it's better to have _you_ punch me then Yang. I'll take what I can get." He put a hand on Ruby's injury, and exhaled. A glow came over the girls leg, but the wound didn't disappear entirely. I was awestruck. I didn't know he had such a mastery of his Aura by now.

"Ok," he said, "Ruby should be good to walk on her own for a while. And we need to get moving."

"Agreed." Said Fox. I helped Ruby up to her feet, all the while Ren had help Pyhrra to hers. Jaune and Fox were getting a plan going, Ren and Pyhrra were talking amongst themselves, which left myself and my young leader.

"So, Ruby." I said, "How did you meet up with Pyhrra and Jaune?"

"Oh, they found me under an apartment complex."

"..." I just stared at her. She said it so nonchalantly, so easily. "You... Were inside an apartment?"

"Kinda." She said with a smile, "It came down on me, and the two came back before the place caved in. I owe them big time, huh?"

"Yeah. That debt's gonna be hard to pay off... Especially after kicking Jaune in the face..."

"Well you punched him!" She was right, I did.

"Ah, but he didn't save _my_ life, did he?" She looked at me and she knew I had won. She just stayed silent and accepted defeat.

"Ok, kiddies." Fox said, "We gotta get out of the streets. We're gonna move through the alley, get back to Church street, and start heading to the Church to the North. Any questions?"

"Why haven't we been looking for our teammates?" Ren spoke.

"We're gonna hope they make it to the Church." Fox said, though it killed him to say it. "It's all we can do. It'll waste too much time to search for them when they are probably on their way now." Ren accepted the response and nodded.

We began our march, destination not far ahead. Ruby stayed close to me, middle of the pack. Ren kept a distance behind us, while Jaune and Pyhrra stayed at the front with Fox. We could hear Grimm, but we couldn't see any.

"Blake, please tell me you hear that growling too?" Ruby whispered, trying not to make her presence known. I nodded slowly, trying to tell where they were, and how close by, if at all. After a moment, the growling stopped, and so did we. We were right in the middle of the street and didn't realize it until it was too late.

We looked to each other, knowing full well we messed up, and hurried to a nearby store, trying to get out of the open. It was too little, too late. A Beowolf smashed through a second story window and hit the ground running. I drew Gambol Shroud, hoping I could kill it before he hit the group, but Ruby was one step ahead of me.

Moving to a crouching position, Crescent Rose extended, but not to full length. She made two, maybe three shots before the Beowolf finally dropped dead. Ruby quickly put her gun away and we made our way out of the open. "Well," Ruby said, trying to break the overall groups silence, "That was a thing, wasn't it?"

"Ok, let's try to avoid that next time." Fox said. He knew full well that this was everyone's fault, so he didn't try to put blame to anyone. We all went out again, but hugged the buildings better, not moving so far out into the street. "Waves of two." Fox said simply, "Jaune and I, Pyhrra and Blake, Ruby and Ren." I looked back at Ruby and she almost looked pale.

"You ok?" I asked, concerned as to if her wound had opened up again. Jaune did say it was a temporary heal. Ruby only shook her head, regaining her composure. Jaune and Fox left, Pyhrra and I readied up by the door. Pyhrra had a smile on her face, suppressing a laugh. What's going on?

We dashed out, moving quickly to the next building. "That was odd." I said, trying to make some form of conversation with the red haired girl.

"Hm? What's that?"

"It was Ruby's reaction when Fox said she would bring up the rear with Ren." I said, jumping through the doors of the next building.

"Oh, yeah. About that." She said, a smile reappearing to her face.

"And that, what's that about?"

"What's what about?" Ruby asked, making her way into the building. She looked to Pyhrra, who was barely holding in her laughter now. "You didn't..." She gasped, kneeling next to us.

"Go, Jaune." Fox ordered. They bolted out, which left the four of us. My curiosity sat at an all time high. I can't take this anymore! "What's going on!?" I almost exploded. Ruby started to speak, but was stopped by a voice on the outside.

"Hey, guys... Get out here..." It was Fox and he sounded... Hesitant. Unsure, even.

"Crap," Pyhrra said, "More Grimm." Readying ourselves for a potential fight we exited the building, but only saw Jaune and Fox standing out in the open, starring off to the sky.

I looked to Ruby, who met my glance. We both turned to the sky and saw...

"What is that...?"

"I don't know, Blake, but it's gonna land not far from here." Ren said. As if on cue, whatever it was landed probably a block south. We all looked at each other and nodded.

"That was a locker rocket," Ruby said, "it might have been sent by Ozpin..." She then realized it. We had all realized it, and began moving to the crash site. Hopefully, our friends would make their way over to it, as well.

Hopefully.

* * *

><p>Weiss PoV<p>

5 Minutes Prior...

It hadn't been long since we reunited with Yang, Velvet and Yatsu-Hashi, but already we were stirring up trouble. Grimm in waves had been bombarding us while we were only blocks from the Church. Yang and my Uncle had been getting along so well, both of them being the boisterous ones. Coco was also getting a kick out of all of this as well.

"Well, hun," Chills voice spoke out as he slashed through a charging Beowolf, "At least this won't be _entirely_ boring. Hahaha!" He just kept slicing through so many Grimm. I felt like I was watching a trained huntsman in action!

As he was having his fun, Yang and Coco weren't far from him. Their laughing was only drowned out by the constant firing of their guns and the shrieks of falling Grimm. Velvet and I still chose to stay back, providing as much cover with our magic as possible. It didn't really matter, though, they had everything locked down.

After a moment, the Grimm turned and fled. They must've realized that this was a futile effort.

"Welp," Uncle Chill said, "Great work all... Now what?"

"Now we get you to the Church so you can get on an evac ship and get the Hell out of the city!" My voice rose as I spoke. I know he's shown what he can do, but I still fear for his safety. And I guess it showed...

"Weiss, dear, why do you think I had your father send you to combat school? I didn't want any niece of mine to be caught up at a desk job like mine. You'd be as crazy as I am..."

"You were crazy before all of this." I interrupted.

"I'm more crazy now!"

"Enough!" Coco shouted, taking back order, "Weiss is right, Chill. We're picking up from where team SLBR left off. You are our package, and we need to deliver you safely."

"Bah, you're all no fun." Boy, he sure would love Yang.

"Hey..." Velvet spoke up, "What's that in the sky?" We all turned our attention to the sky above, and we saw a light. It looked like a star... No, it's too big to be a star. What in the world?

"Is that a locker rocket?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, it is... but who sent it?" Coco said curiously. Then it hit us.

"Ozpin." Was said unanimously.

"Change in plans. You got your wish after all, Chill." Coco said, rather amused at my uncle. After nearly begging he finally gets to stay with the group, but why does he want to stay so badly? Does he love the city so much that he doesn't want to abandon it? Bah- It doesn't matter.

We moved out just after the locker hit ground. It wasn't very close, but not insanely far, either. We moved on, but as we got closer we slowed down, just in case there was anyone- or anything- around. We didn't want to spur another Grimm attack.

I figured, while we had a moment, I can ask Chill something. "Hey, Uncle Chill?"

"Hm?"

"Why don't you want to leave? Most people would jump at the opportunity to get out of a city after... all of this."

"I'm not most people though." He retorted, coming to a stop. "Look around you, Weiss. My childhood was spent here. I love this city. Went it went into economic turmoil, I wanted to help so badly... But alas, I couldn't do a thing. When your mother and I moved to Atlas, and she met your father..." Tears began to form in his eyes, "I knew there was hope for this city yet."

I was speechless. He was so passionate about this place. If only I realized-

"But that's not all." He continued, "I took lessons for four years at a training academy in Atlas. I am trained to be a Hunter, but I couldn't finish my training. That was about the time your parents got married and your Father agreed to help me save this city. In return, he wanted me to help out with you and your sister..." He paused, realized we were falling behind, and walked on. "I told him that if he saved this city I would help him with you two. He was never good with kids. Then you went home and said you wanted to be a Huntress, stuff happened, and I convinced him that a desk job life would not be the best for you until later."

"So... you are the reason for my training?"

"Yes. And I want to stay to see what my persistence has done. I want to see how badass you've become. You never did show me your skills in combat before." I chuckled. I had no idea... I thought my father sent me away for training to make me better prepared for in case the White Fang started hunting me... I had no idea...

"Hey!" Coco said, "Sorry to interrupt the family moment, but we _need_ to get moving." She emphasize the need to move. She was right though, we were wasting time. This conversation can wait until later.

After a moment we made it to the crash site... It was quiet.

"Well," Yang started, "What're we waiting for? Let's go get it!" She was so excited to get to our new objective.

"Wait," Velvet said, "Someone could be watching it by now; That someone might not be here to help us." Yang instantly understood. We were afraid of an ambush. But who would ambush us, and why?

* * *

><p>Glynda PoV<p>

We watched as both teams surrounded the locker, but no one was making a move. They kept their distances... Why? "What are they doing? They should have both gotten to it..."

"Patience Glynda." Ozpin spoke, "They are just playing it safe. They don't know who is out there, nor their intentions."

"That's no excuse. Half of Team RWBY _and_ JNPR should've charged right in by now."

"Yes, under normal circumstances." I saw his logic now. They were only afraid of each other, but they didn't know it.

* * *

><p>Ruby PoV<p>

I transformed Crescent Rose into its sniper mode and kept close watch on the locker from afar. I had some company with me, in the form of my cat Faunus teammate. She refused t leave my side, quoted as saying: "I lost my team once in this shit, I don't want to lose you again." Sounded like something I would say. But I digress.

She was my spotter. Figured if she was going to stay with me, she would help spot me. I stayed locked on the locker, she would watch the surroundings.

"See anything, Blake?"

"Nope."

"Bah, this is boring! We should just go get it. If anyone _is_ watching then they would've made their move by now!"

"I hear that. But it's Fox's decision."

"Who put him in charge?"

"I called dibs." He said easily from below us. He, and the rest of our friends, were sitting in an old restaurant, waiting for our signal. The locker was out in the middle of the street, a blue light flashing on and off from it. It was beckoning to us. Yet, here we sit.

"So, Ruby," Blake started. I caught a rather annoyed tone in her voice and I knew what she was about to ask, "What were you about to tell me back on Church Street before we saw the locker rocket?" Damnit.

"It was nothing Blake." This won't be pretty.

"It will put a smile on Pyhrra and Jaune's faces in a flash, so what is it?"

"Stop phishing."

"No."

Wait, what's that? "Blake..."

"Answer me Ru-"

"Blake, quiet. Look, 40 meters up, one o'clock." That got her attention, and saved me a moment. "What is that?" It looked like a...

"A white flag?"

"Fox," I called down, "You seeing this?"

"Yeah, I am... What the...?" The flag was waving. Now it was moving. A figure came into focus, but I couldn't tell who it was. They looked familiar, though.

"Should I shoot their flag?"

"Why would you do that, Ruby?" Blake asked in a serious, yet annoyed, tone.

"I dunno. Give me some trigger time..." I said with a smile. But gazing into her eyes, I could tell she found no humor in it. "Alright, we won't shoot." I looked down my scope again. The figure holding the flag slowly walked out into the light. Still, I couldn't make out who it was. "Anyone got a better angle on her than me? I can't tell who that is?"

A wave of 'no' was sent my way. I had hoped someone could tell this.

"Whoever they are..." Pyhrra began, "They want to surrender."

"Clearly." Fox said. "And I thought we were the ones being watched. We've got the upper hand here. Ruby, send a warning shot to her. Don't let it hit close to her, though."

"I know what a warning shot is." I called back. Sending the round, the flag bearer stopped in her place.

"That was a warning!" Fox called out, "If you have more people with you, send them out into the light, or we will fire upon you!" He ordered. Like that, six figures stepped out, each with their hands raised. Then we made a horrible realization.

"That's our teammates!" I called down.

"Oh... shit." Fox muttered under his breath, "Coco's gonna kill me, then." It was Coco holding the flag. I guess I didn't recognize her without her chain gun/carrying bag.

"Screw this," I called, "I'm going up there!" Jumping down from my perch, Blake was hot on my tail. Jaune, Pyhrra and Ren instantly broke out of the restaurant, with Fox joining us late.

"Wow are you all a sight for sore eyes!" Coco called, dropping her flag.

"It's about time we found you two!" Weiss called to Blake and myself, "Do you two have any idea how it is staying with this one alone for more than five minutes." She said pointing at Yang.

"What can I say?" She started, "I'm not the one to play the 'silent game'."

"I don't know how you do it, Ruby..."

"You get used to it." I said easily. Right after I did I felt me feet leave the earth, followed by a moment of breathlessness. Both symptoms of a patented Yang Xiao Long Bear Hug. She also had Blake _and_ Weiss caught up, lifting all of us in the air. "You get used to this too!" I said, trying to catch my breath.

"I'm so glad we're all ok!" Yang said. She clearly had no intention of putting us down soon.

"Aw, touching."

I looked to find the source of that comment, and found a mysterious man staring at us, smile on his face. "Who's that?" I whispered into Yang's ear. Being at the bottom of the Bear Hug, it was easy to communicate with my overjoyed sister.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Weiss said, "Yang, if you would, please."

"Fine, if I have to." With that she reluctantly put us all down.

"Ruby, Blake, this is my uncle. Head of Operations of the SDC in Vale. Uncle Chill, these are my other teammates, Blake Belladonna, and our team lead Ruby Rose."

"A pleasure." He said, nodding to us both. "Don't let me stop your little moment. C'mon, you've just been reunited with your team. Get happy!" As if, once again, on cue, we had been thrust back into a group hug. Thankfully Yang didn't put it into another Bear Hug. I don't know if my body can take it.

After less than a minute, there was a loud beep. We all turned to the locker. The beeping was getting louder, and more frequent. After a few more beeps, a voice was hear.

It was Ozpin.

"It's about time you all got back together." The voice was emanating from the locker, but we couldn't tell if it was a recording or not. "Inside this locker, you will find all of the necessary supplies for you all to finish you mission. There are four scrolls, all hardwired to our ship so we can stay in communications. First aid and refreshments will also be inside. We are currently caught up by a storm, so it will take us a little while to get to you. Expect an evacuation at around ten o'clock."

Right after that the locker opened. There was everything he said there would be. Food, drinks, scrolls, first aid, even some ammo for everyone. It was beautiful.

"Yatsu-Hashi," Coco called over, "Think you can help move this out of the open. Maybe in the food joint Fox and the others were in?" Yatsu-Hashi just nodded, moved to the locker, and lifted it. These things were _not,_ in any way, light. Yet he was lifting it like it was nothing. Can't say I'm surprised, really.

"Ok everyone," Coco called, "Let's take a few minutes. We need to regroup entirely and relax. I'll get one of those scrolls to work and call Ozpin or Goodwitch. We'll go from there." With that, everyone began moving to the restaurant that we were in not five minutes ago. I took two, maybe three steps, then my leg gave way.

A surge of pain once again stopped me in my tracks. This time, it was worse than ever before. "Ah, damnit!"

"Ruby!" Yang called, "What happened?"

"I took a couple chunks of building to my leg, earlier!" The pain was intense. I couldn't explain to her my full ordeal now. Hell I can barely form a word.

"It's ok Ruby," Blake said, trying to calm me, "We've got first aid inside. We can properly patch that up now." I nodded to her. The relief can't come soon enough. Yang lifted me off the ground, something that I would normally protest too, but if it meant I didn't have walk, then so be it.

Getting inside we quickly found an open seat- one that hadn't been crushed, or otherwise. Yang set me down do I was leaning back onto her. We were sitting in a booth, but not too far in. Weiss brought up a chair to rest my injured leg upon. Pyhrra brought over the first aid kit.

"Ruby, I'm not going to lie to you," Blake started, "This will hurt... A lot." I nodded. I accepted the reality of this pain a long time ago, but still I am not prepared for it. Yang held one of my hands, Weiss, another.

"Don't look, Ruby." Yang said, covering my eyes. I guess the wound was greater than we originally thought. After a moment there was nothing. Then, searing, intense pain shot through my leg. Whatever they did it burned, bad.

I couldn't help but cry out. I have never felt any worse pain, ever. I want it to be over, so badly. Then, just like that, my wish was granted and consciousness had slipped away from me.

* * *

><p>Glynda PoV<p>

I quickly ran into Professor Ozpin's onboard study. I was more than ecstatic to inform him that all of the teams had been accounted for. Everyone was back together. Entering his office, he was staring blankly at the wall. His face, devoid of emotion.

"Professor Ozpin?"

"They've found each other, haven't they?"

"Yes sir. They are currently taking a few moments rest. We have a connection with two of those scrolls. I don't think they've turned the other two on-"

"What's the point..."

"Ozpin?"

"I just got a message from General Ironwood. He is stopping for nothing. He doesn't want a city where the Grimm have overrun it. He has ordered his fleet to keep moving and ceased all communications with us." Ozpin said, a slight sneer in his voice. He was disgusted by Ironwood, and so was I.

"Then we need to move now! Storm be damned. He's already got a head start on us, let's lesson the divide!" I said. I don't want all that we have worked for to be dashed by the madman. Ozpin nodded, and made the order.

But I wonder: Are we too late?

* * *

><p><strong>Well, this was kinda jumpy, wasn't it. I'm sorry about that, I'm already deep into the next chapter, so I can tell you right now that the next one won't jump PoV's as much. <strong>

**This chapter marks the end of the overall Regroup/Reunified arcs. The next arc has no official name, but it is the last one. **

**This chapter is also the longest one I've every written. Not as much dialogue, and I do feel as though I kinda forced it at some points in the chapter. But again in the next one, that won't be an issue.**

**Also, for anyone who love Ruby... Sorry. I gotta be honest, I did NOT want to do that to her, and it killed me to write that part, but at the same time it was kinda fun (sadistic, I know.)**

**So that's pretty much it. I'll have an update chapter soon to get everyone caught up, just in case you lost your way in the story (Please don't have lost you way!).**

**Thanks for reading. **


	14. Chapter 13: R&R

**Happy Thanksgiving, all! I give you Chapter 13 early, as a gift and my appreciation for all of the support you all have shown for this story! **

**Keep in mind, this chapter is heavy, and I mean HEAVY on the dialogue. I wish I could color coat the words so it would be easier to tell who was talking. But alas, I cannot. **

**I will see you at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 13<p>

Rest and Recovery

Yang PoV

Ruby's cries of pain filled the restaurant. The wound on her leg had actually been a pretty sizeable gash that, over the last few hours, have steadily gotten worse. I had covered her eyes so she wouldn't have to see how bad it was. To be honest, I have no idea how she didn't feel it earlier.

Keeping her eyes covered with one hand, I released hers, freeing my other hand. Pyhrra quickly grabbed hold, though, so I could cover Ruby's mouth with my now freed hand. Her muffled cries of anguish died down after a moment. It was clear that she couldn't handle the pain and slipped away into unconsciousness.

"Ok..." Blake started, "I think we're good... The bandage is on tight but we'll need to exchange it soon..." She was clearly distraught, having heard what just happened. Everyone in the building took a sigh of relief or wiped a tear away from their eyes, myself included.

Obviously, her being my younger sister, I never wanted to see her hurt. I knocked down anyone who dared to even leave a light scratch on her when we were kids. Overprotective? Maybe. But I didn't care. No one hurt my family.

"Yang..." I heard a voice. Looking up I saw Pyhrra in the booth next to ours, still holding Ruby's hand, "You ok?"

"Yeah, I... I think so, at least." The pained expression on Ruby's face was gone, thankfully.

"Ren, go see if there was a blanket in the first aid kit." Pyhrra asked. Sounded like an order, but her tone of voice implied it as a request. Ren nodded and moved back to the locker, sifting through whatever was in there. He returned a short time later and handed me the blanket from the first aid kit. I nodded in thanks and covered Ruby up. She was resting on my lap, and I refused to let her out of my sight any longer.

"Coco, Coco can you hear me?" There was a voice coming through one of the scrolls. During our little operation on Ruby, Coco tried to make a call to Goodwitch, but cut herself off after we had begun.

"Yes Goodwitch, I'm here and everyone is accounted for."

"Ah, good. You have no idea how worried we've been for you kids. We're counting one more person then you should have, care to explain?"

"You care to explain how you know that?" Coco responded with a smirk on her face. Were they spying on us?

"Don't get snappy with me, girl. Who is it?"

Weiss's uncle took the Scroll from Coco, "Professor Goodwitch, I presume? I am the head of the SDC Vale branch. Weiss and the others found me back at my office and are now escorting me to the Church."

There was silence from the other end, for a moment at least. "Ah, wonderful. Can I please speak to my student again, sir?" Chill handed off the Scroll back to Coco, who nearly swiped it from his hand. She wasn't happy that he did that. Chill came and sat next to Weiss, who was sitting at the booth across from Ruby and I.

"I'm back Goodwitch. Lemme guess, you want a status report?" Coco asked.

"Please."

"Everyone is accounted for, only one injury to report. We're taking the next few minutes to rest up before finally getting to the Church."

"One injury? Who's that?" Goodwitch asked hesitantly.

"Ruby, ma'am. She's got a massive gash on her left leg. We've bandaged it up, but she's gone at least two and a half hours without proper healing. She's in a lot of pain and currently unconscious." Coco said, while starring at my sister, pity in her eyes. Pity or sorrow, hard to tell from this distance. All the while Ruby stayed in her slumber, barely moving.

"I see. Well there are some healers at the Church, so we can finally get her a proper check-up. I'd suggest you move soon, lest that wound get's infected." We all nodded in agreement with the Professor. "Oh, and one more thing, Professor Ozpin would like to speak with you all..." Oh great, here comes the pep-talk.

"Hello all," His voice rang out. Coco raised the volume so everyone could hear, "I'd like to congratulate you on making it this far. It was sketchy at times, but I want you to know we never lost faith in any of you. But I must warn you: General Ironwood is coming in force, with plans to clear out the city of all Grimm. The North point Church of the Light is the _only_ safe haven in the city." We all looked around, sharing worried glances.

"Keep in mind we now have a means of constant communications, so if you need us, just call. We will be there by at least ten o'clock. Ironwood by nine thirty. I would begin moving soon. Good luck. We'll be watching." With that, his voice cut out.

"So," Jaune spoke, "When do we want to move?"

"Now." Coco said passionately. "We should get move now, just in case. The sooner we can get there, the better. Not only for ourselves, but for Ruby especially." We all nodded in agreement. Me more so, so we can get my sister some help.

In an instant everyone got ready to move. Picking up anything and everything that would help, we began to move out. I picked Ruby and carried her outside, being sure she was still wrapped up in that blanket. Blake, Chill and Weiss all stayed by us. Pyhrra and Ren we to our backs, Jaune and Nora in front, while team CFVY were farther ahead.

"Ren, switch with Jaune in the front please." Pyhrra asked. Ren looked over with a curious expression, but only nodded instead of protested and switch with Jaune. "Blake, Weiss... Uh, Chill, right?" Chill nodded, "Move farther ahead. We'll be ok. If anything happens they might need your help up there." The trio agreed and moved up. This left Pyhrra, Jaune and myself relatively alone. But why?

I looked over to Pyhrra, quizzical expression clear on my face. I didn't have to say anything, she knew what she wanted to say. "Yang, I know this won't be a big deal for you at all, but considering we dug her out of that damn apartment, we want to ensure her safety." I nodded.

"That's not why you sent the others ahead, is it?" Crouching around the corner of a building, waiting for the all clear.

"No..." She said slyly, "Ruby would never let us tell you this, so her being knocked out is our best and only time..."

"What is it?" I had to admit, I was a bit concerned. But the smile on the couples faces told me it was nothing to fear. We got the all clear and moved up. The others went ahead. They must've found some Grimm because they had all started fighting. I gotta resist the urge to help, though.

"We think Ruby has a crush..." Pyhrra whispered in my ear. My eyes went wide, I tried to form words as to who or why, or how do they know, but Pyhrra knew what I was going to ask. "She asked us what was up with Ren and Nora. When I asked why did she care, she said it was 'teenage curiosity.'"

"Oh yeah. She gave that same bullshit to our father whenever she got in trouble for snooping around." I said, chuckling it all off. I had missed this, gossip with friends. "So you think it's on Ren?"

The two nodded, then started to move up when the others gave the all clear. I kept a smile on my face while running to the next building. This wasn't the first time Ruby's had a crush on someone. And it certainly wasn't the first time that I've heard it from someone else. Either she was too proud to admit it, or she was embarrassed. Either way it didn't strike me as surprising.

Just as we got the signal to move up again, Ruby began to stir. "Hey, wait!" I called, "I think she's waking up!" The group stopped and backtracked to us.

Coco pulled out her scroll and made a call to Goodwitch, "Professor Goodwitch this is Coco, Ruby's waking up."

"Oh great." Goodwitch sent back, "But you need to keep moving. Take a minute for her to wake up, but by God don't let her walk over to the Church."

"Don't need to worry about that," Coco shot back, "I don't think Yang would let that happen." I nodded, suppressing a blush from rising to my face. Was I really that predictable? Maybe Velvet was right, maybe I am too motherly.

"Mm, wh- wha...?" Ruby stirred more, actually making noise now. "Where am I?"

"Hey, sis. How'd you sleep?"

"Yang? Ah, where are we?"

"It's a long story. All that matters is that you'll be ok. We're almost at the Church, it's only a couple of blocks from here. When we get there you're going to get some professional help on that leg." I explained, trying to prevent her from panicking. She seemed so Fubar'd from the ordeal that she didn't seem to care.

"Alright, whatever you say, sis." She said very groggily. With that I nodded to the others, rose to my feet and started moving with the group. Now we stopped for no one.

"Coco, this is Ozpin." Ozpin's voice rose from the Scrolls, "We need you to move fast to the Church. A large pack of Grimm have found their way there and the forces remaining won't be able to hold them off for much longer."

"I hear you, Ozpin." Coco shot back. "You heard him, Yang, leave Blake, Weiss and Chill with you, just in case something happens. We'll go on ahead. See you soon." With that, the two teams ran as fast as they could in the direction of the Church. We could hear the gunfire. We could see the light the Church was emanating. We were close. So close.

But I didn't want to risk going too fast with Ruby still out of it. "How is she doing, Yang?" Weiss asked.

"Oh I'm juuuuuuuuust fiiiiiiiiiiine." She was still well out of it, but still hanging in there. "I haven't been carried off like this in a long time."

"What do you mean?" Blake questioned.

"Bake at Signal we went out with a teacher and a couple of friends to go Grimm hunting. The instructors were ok with it, they just wanted to have at least one around, just in case. Well, we found an Ursa pack, and one got behind Ruby and got her."

"I got some hang time!"

"Stay quiet, Ruby, you need your strength. Anyway, she got shot back and went through an oak tree. The instructor who was with us, also our Uncle, carried her back to Signal while the rest of us took down the Ursa."

"Ah," Ruby corrected, "While _you_ got pissed and wiped them all out. Everyone else just stayed and watched."

"Wow, Yang." Chill said, "Remind me to never mess with you... or your family." I shot him a look and nodded. Better he know now then find out later.

We finally came up to the Church, still under attack. Weiss and Blake went out to help with the fight, while I went in to see if I could find her some help. I lost Chill somewhere in this time, but I figured he'd go out and help fight.

Walking into the Church, I spotted a row of cots. Some were occupied, some were empty. I set Ruby down in an empty one, only to be met by a nurse. "Hello there, young one," She started, "I'm nurse Able."

"Hello, I'm Yang. This right here is my sister. We, and our friends, were on a mission from Beacon Academy to help with the evacuation effort. The quake hit, and she kinda got buried."

"Ah, well let's see what the damage is." She started to look over Ruby's leg. She pulled off the bandage, which made Ruby almost cry out again. "It'll be ok, darling. All of the nurses here have medical training and healing semblances. She'll be fine in our hands. Go, help your friends." I had to trust her. I had to trust that Ruby was in the best hands possible.

Still, I couldn't bring myself to leave her...

"Yang..." I looked over, meeting silver eyes, "Go. They'll need you more than I will." She said through gritted teeth. I nodded. I guess now I really have no choice. She probably was about to order me, anyway.

Sucks having your little sister be your team lead sometimes.

I dashed out, down into the fight. However I was met with dwindling opposition. Any Grimm that were here, weren't now. Any that remained fled.

"Aw," I complained, "I didn't get do hit anyone."

The others laughed it off. "It's ok Yang," Weiss began, "They never got close for you to punch them anyway." Well, that made me feel kinda better.

"Welcome, all," I heard a familiar voice... But I couldn't recognize it. A face came into focus, showing...

"Saul?"  
>"Hello. Welcome to the North point Church of the Light. Glad you all could make it." All of SLBR Team now came into focus. I thought Chill said they died?<p>

"Wait," Weiss said, "Uncle Chill, didn't you say..."

"We had to draw the Grimm away, there was just too many. So we fled from the Building, and in doing so, leaving our package. We intended to return, but we got driven all the way back here. Sorry."

"It's nothing, boy." Chill said. "I'm happy with how I made it nonetheless." He looked at Weiss with a smile. I guess I didn't realize how well they got along. I assumed Weiss hated her family.

"Yang," Coco called my name, "We can secure everything out here. Go inside, make sure your sisters safe. I nodded, thanking her. Blake and Pyhrra joined me. Weiss stayed with her uncle to make sure he didn't try anything stupid. Walking into the Church we found a dim lit building. Whether it was from a lack of power or a lack of overall light. I quickly spotted nurse Able, finishing up with Ruby.

"Hi there," She called. Able was an older women, but not too old. Probably her late forties. She had a patch which quickly identified her as 'Head Nurse'. "That was fast."

"They didn't really put up much of a fight." I said, suppressing a giggle. "Oh, this is our teammate, Blake," Blake nodded," And our friend, Pyhrra. Pyhrra and another friend of ours were the ones to dig Ruby up."

"Ah, fantastic." Able exclaimed, "Miss Pyhrra, when you dug Ruby up, did you notice her injury?"

"Not right away, ma'am."

"Please, don't start with the 'ma'am' stuff. My Nurses in Training call me that all the time and it drives me nuts! Anyway, did you attempt to heal her?"

"Oh..." Pyhrra by God what did you do to my sister? "My team leader, who helped me dig her up, healed her... I think."

"Well, he didn't do a good job, that's for sure. What's you leaders name?" Able asked, actually curious.

"Jaune Arc."

"Oh, he's an Arc? Well, his semblance would never heal." What?

"Excuse me?" I asked, slightly confused and slightly enraged as well, "What's going on?"

"Ok, Yang, let me start." Pyhrra began to give me the run down on what happened after they found Ruby. Jaune pumped Aura in to help Ruby recover faster, seeing as though he doesn't know his semblance yet. First time he tried it Ruby kicked him.

That's my girl.

"Ok, Pyhrra, let me tell you something about Arcs. Historically speaking, at least," Able's turn, "An Arcs semblance is generally protection, not healing. The Male, who will traditionally be the warrior of the family, has a semblance that protects the user from damage, and can heal themselves. Not others. Your leader didn't heal Ruby, only stopped anything from getting into the wound.

This suppressed any kind of pain being felt, so while the wound was getting worse and worse, Ruby couldn't feel the pain."

"That explains a lot." Ruby said, laying back in her cot.

"This means that, while no outside force could hurt, no inside force can help, being that a foreign Aura is present. Your Aura didn't know how to react with Jaune's, dear."

"That... Makes so much sense." Pyhrra said. "I activated Jaune's Aura for him, which meant that my Aura could react and the two would work as one. But that was Ruby's first time having contact with it."

"Ok," I got where everything was going, but I still wanted to know: "Who do I punch for this?"

"Yang," Ruby said, putting a hand on my shoulder, "Punch some Grimm. No one else is at fault but them." Damn, I really wanted to punch someone else.

"So," Blake spoke up, getting back to the point, "How do we fix this?"

"Well, when you all first went to bandage her up- great job on that, by the way- The pain that had been locked away finally came to the surface all at once. So when you tried to treat it, well... stuff happened, medical jargon blah blah, she basically couldn't take three hours of pain in one minute, and her body shut down in an attempt to process all of this.

What I did was put as much of my healing semblance in, which is an _actual_ healing semblance, so don't worry about that. I want her to take a half an hour and rest, let your body respond to my semblance and all of the healing I've done, then you can walk."

Ruby nodded, but still, something seemed to trouble her, "Nurse Able, I can still feel some pain."

"That's because I'm not an eternal fountain of Aura, dear. Some other people need it like you and I couldn't waste it all. I healed you to the best of my ability, without draining myself. You'll feel pain, but it's now more or less under the surface. There could be a fracture in your bone, I can't tell now. So I would stay off of it all together, but your Aura might take care of the rest."

"So you're telling her to rest?" I asked. Ruby never was good at the doctors. What I left out in my story earlier that once Ruby woke up, she and Uncle Qrow snuck out of the Infirmary. She was stubborn and she hated hospitals.

"Yes, rest until she feels better. I'm not going to tell a Huntress what to do, that's for sure." She said with a smile. "It's a judgment call, now."

"I'm going to take that half an hour, but then I'm going back out. I've been out of the fight for too long now." Well, guess she's made her decision.

"Well, we're still going to keep you company, little sister." I said propping myself against a small stool. Pyhrra and Blake joined me.

Now my only thought was how I could tease my sister with her little crush?

* * *

><p><strong>Didn't I say it would be dialogue heavy? Sorry about that. <strong>

**So, in case you are still curious on why Ruby reacted to her injury so badly last chapter, I explained it here. But I will explain again just in case it was confusing. Wall of Text inc.**

**Jaune's semblance is NOT healing. It cannot heal unless the person who is being healed already knows and has accepted Jaune's Aura in the past. Pyhrra was able to be healed by it because she unlocked Jaune's Aura. The two are now ****compatible. Ruby has not felt Jaune's Aura, so her Aura could not accept it. It's like blood types, except in this case Aura can work with Aura if the 2nd one knows and has accepted it in the past. Jaune's attempt at healing did not work, so instead of healing, it just stopped any and all outside AND inside forces from harming/helping. It suppressed pain, for 3 whole hours. When Jaune didn't use his Semblance on her last chapter, it caused all of the pain to come back at once. 3 hours of suppression. **

**That is a lot. **

**So when the group tried to treat the wound, which is a deep gash on Ruby's inside left thigh, all of the pain mixed with first aid alcohol caused a massive burning sensation, one of which she could not take and her body shut down temporarily. Mainly to do a damage assessment and start her own recovery. **

**Could her Aura have helped her? Yes. But Jaune's Semblance did not allow it to. Is Jaune to blame? Technically yes, but actually no. Because he did not know of his semblance. **

**So, that aside, how was the chapter? A lot of talking, a lot of worry. The next chapter won't be about that. And if you are keeping track, Yang, Pyhrra and Jaune all know of Ruby's secret. Blake wants to know but hasn't been told yet. **

**Next chapter is another one of preparation. I meant to have some Ironwood love, but I really wanted to make the chapter a Yangs-giving (Haha... I'll show myself out...). Next chapter we will pick at the crazy militarized bastard's brain and see he's justification. **

**Also, before I go. I have a thought for a new story. I have some one-shot ideas, but I have a new series that I'm thinking of. I'll keep thinking about it and explain my thoughts next time. You all can tell me yay or nay, if I should or shouldn't make it. **

**Until next time. Happy Thanksgiving!**


	15. Chapter 14: The Calm

**Holy shit I feel like I copped out. I wanted to get the story up, but whenever I tried working on it someone had to charge in "Oh, you need to go out and do stuff with us." WELL FUCK YOU I'M DOING SOMETHING!**

**Ahem, sorry about that. I just have NOT had a moment to myself since Thanksgiving. I had 3 hours today to get this up. This is more of a preparation of what's to come. At the end of the story I'll answer some questions that some people had.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

><p>The Calm<p>

Weiss PoV

I watched as Yang, Blake and Pyhrra all went back into the Church. I wanted to follow them, to check on my leader, my partner. But I was needed outside, with the others.

While my job was to guard my uncle, it was also to keep the Church and everyone in it safe until help arrived. Coco and Saul were working with the remaining military forces to create a line of defense in case the Grimm came back. We had little precious rounds of ammo to spare, and going back to the SDC HQ was not an option. Nor could we request an ammo drop from Ozpin and Glynda.

The military is useless here.

Though the hunters, us, had plenty of rounds to spare. The military would be our last line of defense. If we fall, they're it.

Around the Church there were few buildings left standing. This area looked like it took a beating. The Church itself was surrounded by three big buildings. In between these buildings are only 3 streets. Our plan was to block the streets and take up the buildings as a defense perimeter. All we needed now was something to help move all of the debris.

That was easier said than done, considering all of the machines in the area were crushed or damaged.

"Hey, Weiss..."

"Coco, I am **NOT** using my semblance to help move all of this!"

"I don't think you have a choice, dear."

"Chill, stay out of this!" He's not helping.

"Come on, Weiss!" Coco said, trying to encourage me, "it's going to help us, a lot. Please?" Was she... begging?

"No. That's too much stuff to move at once-"

"You won't move it at once!" Coco interrupted, "I can get Velvet to help you and get Yatsu-Hashi to move anything that you two can't!"

"Can he really do that?" Chill inquired, "If the two aren't able to use magic to lift it, how could he?"

"Have you seen the big man? Trust me, he'll do it." On cue, Yatsu-Hashi cracked his knuckles. "Please, Weiss? I understand your distain to the idea, but it has to be done. You and Velvet are the only two who are able to do it with ease!"

"Ok, ok... fine." I stopped her, "I'll do it. It will be tough, but I'll do it." It's not the manual labor that I had distain for, it was the fact that there was SO MUCH SHIT I had to put in the roads! Trucks, steel, fallen building chunks. Mind you, half of most of the buildings were in the road anyway, it still meant we had to move a number of big things into position. But it was for our safety and the safety of people we would be sworn to protect in four years time...

I have no choice in the matter.

Velvet and I began our work, maneuvering any and all ruble, large and small chunks, into the roads. The others worked on barricading everything else inside of the buildings. Every door, window or otherwise.

"Hey Weiss," I heard someone call my name. Turning around I saw Jaune walking over, "Ya know I can get Pyhrra down here to help you two. I'm sure it'll make some of the metal objects a bit easier."

"Oh that would be wonderful Jaune!" Velvet exclaimed, happy that we could get some help. Jaune was right, for once; Pyhrra would definitely help.

Jaune quickly ran into the Church to retrieve our help. I was taken aback a bit when I saw Yang with her. I would think she would be staying with her sister for sure.

"'Bout time you showed up."

"Oh piss off Weiss." Yang retorted, "Ruby's resting and I'm getting bored. So I'm going to help you all any way I can." I nodded. With Yang this would be even faster then we hoped. We were already done blocking one street, the one to the north of Church Street.

Working our way south we found ourselves overlooking a decimated Church Street. There wasn't much reason to block it off, but we still had too. We even got my Uncle to help.

In less than half of the time it took to get the first one done, we found ourselves moving down to the southern street. Everyone else who was working on barricading the buildings had now moved to setting up their positions in the second, third and fourth stories. Some military forces had opted to take some remaining guns and set up with us.

"So, Yang," I began, trying to spark some conversation, "How is Ruby doing?"

"Fine. We can only hope she's not giving Blake a hard time. She always hated hospitals."

"Childhood fear?" Pyhrra joined.

"Eh. It's not really a fear." Yang said, trying to find the right way to explain it, "It's more of a natural avoidance."

"What's that supposed to-"

"She hates needles, ok?" She cut me off, "When she was little she was told she had to get just one shot. But no, she had to get **EVERY** inoculation possible for a child to have. I think it was like 4 or 5."

"Wow." Pyhrra and I said in unison.

"Yeah. She didn't like that very much." I'm not sure of anyone who would. That seems like a legitimate reason to hate needles. Normally you'd get 'she just does,' or something stupid.

Interesting.

"Hey!" We heard a familiar voice. Turning, we saw none other but the topic of the conversation herself with a cat Faunus bodyguard right behind her. "Are you talking shit, Yang?"

"Who, me?" Yang replied, sarcastically, "Naw, sis. Why would I do that?"

"Uh huh, which story was it this time?"

"The needle story."

"Oh god." The blood visibly drained from her face at the mention of the story. I guess Yang wasn't joking.

"Shouldn't you be getting more rest?" I asked, concerned. Yang hadn't told me of any healings that had been done, so I wasn't sure if she was really ok.

"Oh don't worry about her." Blake said, "The nurse in there said the healing should be taking effect now. The cut isn't as deep as it was, so she's good to walk. Not really sure on intense fighting."

"The important thing," Ruby started, "Is that I no longer need anyone else's help with walking. "

"That's my sister!" Yang exclaimed, pulling Ruby into a headlock-type hug. "Sport that limp!"

"Let... go! Can't... breath! AH!"

"Oh..." Yang finally released her iron grip, a tad flustered in the end. "Sorry. So, are you here to help?"

"With what we can." Blake said, allowing Ruby to catch her breath. "I understand we're late, though."

"Better late than never." Pyhrra jumped in, "The others are setting up positions in the buildings surrounding the Church. We're almost done with blocking the roads." She explained. "We've got this job done. You two go check on the others and see if they need help. Yang, go with them. With Velvet, Weiss, Chill and I, we've got this."

With that, Blake, Ruby and Yang left. I almost forgot that Chill was here. Am I a bad guard or what?

Now I know how hard it is for the people we actually _pay_ to watch us. I never realized how vigilant they had to be. And I always tried to lose them as a kid. I chuckled at the memory.

After a moment, we had finally gotten the last piece into position. With the help of fallen building chunks, destroyed or damaged vehicles and some random, unusable equipment found around the area. "Ah." I exhaled. This one labor was done. Now there was only the waiting game; waiting for more Grimm to show up at lea-

"Hello? Hello. Can you all hear me?" A voice broke over the scroll Pyhrra had taken. There was four of them, and a select few had taken one to their area. Every group working had one. "This is Professor Ozpin. Everyone, this is urgent: Ironwood has authorized long ranged tactical strikes. You are within range. We don't know how accurate he will be, all he knows is that the church is the only safe haven.

You need to abandon whatever your doing and fortify yourselves and others within the Church."

"We hear you Ozpin," Coco broke. We all knew what we had to do.

"Wait..." Ozpin's voice came over the radio once more, "Oh no, he's fired. number 15, 16, 17! Find cover, now! You have less than thirty seconds!"

We all ran inside the nearest building. Staying close to the sturdiest corner, we braced for the enviable. We braced for the worst.

What is Ironwood thinking?

* * *

><p>Ironwood PoV<p>

"Fire." I gave the order. Now that we were in range for long-range targeted missile strikes, we could finally unload into some of the Grimm. We worked our shots around the Church, but still close enough to take it out of range of immediate Grimm attacks.

Our satellites were not working at this point, so we don't actually know where the Grimm are. Ozpin and Glynda offered theirs, but I can't trust them. They'd probably lead us away from our goal.

Eradicate the Grimm, save the city.

Ozpin had good intentions, but his methods are flawed. The only way to make people realize what they should already know by now is by a full on blaze of glory. They need to know that we are here to help them, and we have the weapons to do it.

Directus was the best way.

"Sir," A crewman spoke, "We are less than 30 minutes from Directus."

"Very good. Prepare all rescue teams. The moment we get within range, send them and recover all persons from the Haven." Haven was code word for the Church. "I'll be in my personal quarters if you need me. I'll trust you'll have this under control though. Whenever you can, send another rocket salvo at the secondary targets."

With that order, I left the mission room. Our secondary targets was now everything around the Church by a two mile radius. Nothing will get to the Haven.

Nothing.

I entered my quarters, only to find an alert on my scroll. Who could this be now?

'Message: Glynda.

Ironwood, rethink this. You are making yourself and your forces an enemy to Vale. You have no clearance to engage any kind of combat in Vale. Please, you think your position and your accolades give you the permission, but you still don't truly have it.

Before _we_ have to take force against you, turn back. Cease your attack and only send medical aide.'

Does she really think she can stop me with this?

'You have no idea what we are doing. We will rid the city of Humanities enemy and rebuild the city from the rubble. You cannot stop us.'

Now the race was on. Even though we've cut off all communications, I knew they'd be going at full speed. The storm, though severe, would stop nothing. We had to make it first.

No more of Humanities great cities will fall.

* * *

><p>Blake PoV<p>

I sat with Ruby and Yang in the lowest possible floor. Explosions rocked the earth, reminding us of the cataclysmic quake that decimated the landscape not too long ago. We were in what appeared to be a kitchen, taking cover under a table.

I could hear the missiles coming. It was almost over.

Still, Yang held both Ruby and I close. She didn't want anything to happen. Neither did I. We had all made it this far, and some crazy trigger happy general won't stop us. As quickly as it started, though, the explosions ceased. I couldn't hear anything else coming. "It's over."

With that, Yang released us. We all slowly crawled from under the table. Looking around we saw that the entire room was in shambles. He was close.

Too close.

"Well, that was..." Yang began, "Ah to hell with it. I can't think right now." I don't blame her. We made our way outside, and found nothing but even more destruction. Is this what Ironwood was hoping for? Laying wasted to the whole city? Because he has a good start on it.

"Oh no..." I heard from a distance. It wasn't a voice that I was familiar with, but I recognized it nonetheless. looking over to find that the owner of said voice was none other than Weiss' uncle, Chill. "What has he done to my city?" Chill said in disbelief and shock.

Weiss had told us that her Uncle helped rebuild the city from economic decline. How he grew up here and wanted to help. But this...

This was just... awful. We could rebuild from an earthquake. But this?

There would be nothing to rebuild. Only desolation.

Seeing Chill break down, hurt me a little. The White Fang never had anything against Chill in particular. He never had anything against Faunus and was always a spokesperson for fair rights and laws. Seeing a man who we had no issue with, compared to the rest of the SDC, in this much pain, hurt me, too. I wanted to help, but no words could help.

Weiss sat next to him, comforting him to the best of her ability. I wish her luck.

"If I ever see Ironwood... I'm going to make him pay." I looked to Ruby, who was almost seething. I didn't realize how mad she was getting. "Bastard." She turned and walked in a huff. I know she doesn't like to see this kind of unwarranted destruction, but I think what got her was the fact that someone in her teammates family, her _partners_ family, was hurting. Must've hit her as much as it did Weiss.

Yang quickly chased after her. I stayed, surveying the damage. Both physical, and emotional. In the background, however, I could hear Coco rounding up everyone else, trying to fix what Ironwood broke.

Ruby was right. The man had no idea what he was doing.

"Bastard."

* * *

><p><strong>Ironwood, man. Thinking he is the righteous hand of fate, here to save the world. Stubborn ass.<strong>

**Anyway, I really feel like i copped out. I can give no excuse other than I wanted it up today and had NO time to write. **

**So, to answer a couple of questions and respond to some comments made last time: **

**Yes episode one did happen. You'll see where that comes in very soon, just gotta let the story progress a bit. **

**I never did say RxR were going to date (Though now I realize it was HEAVILY implied). Sorry about that. It's just a case of one has a crush, other doesn't know but everyone else does! (Cause, ya know, why not?).  
><strong>

**I don't have the RWBY DvD, so I didn't know the whole Semblance deal. Don't care, you're right, that's stupid. **

**That's really it. I got good reviews from people about my explanation on Ruby's injury. Now it's still hurting her, but not as badly. She can move on her own. Though there is a slight concussion that I have not addressed yet. In all honesty I completely forgot. But it'll be implemented soon. **

**Thanks for reading.**

**P.S. I promise I'll get more time to myself and write a damn good chapter next time! **


	16. Chapter 15: The Storm Part 1

**I'm back! **

**I know this took me a while, but I figured out a way to move the story forward. It WILL stay as 1st person. In the future, depending on how much of a reception my idea gets, I will sit down and make a 3rd person pov story. **

**Anyway, enough of that. I wanted to get this and the new chapter of Amnesia up on Christmas, but I got bogged down in alot of things. That continued until today. So Cataclysmic is up, and I'm still taking my time with this, so it may not be weekly updates, but it's something, and Amnesia will be up too. **

**Now that I've got that out of the way, I'm going to leave you with the story. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>The Storm<p>

Yang PoV

I trailed close behind Ruby, leaving Blake behind. I don't know what Blake will do, she looked lost in thought. But I have to stop Ruby from doing something she might regret later on.

I followed her through the building where we had taken cover from Ironwoods bombardment and out into the campsite the military had set up outside of the Church. She stopped at a table, gripping it with both of her hands.

"Ruby...?" I called, "Are you alright?"

"It isn't right..."

"What's that?" I moved closer to her slowly so I wouldn't alarm her.

"All of this..." She pointed out to the wasteland beyond the defensive line we had constructed, "These people worked so hard... They survived so many wars, went through an economic collapse and internal turmoil... They were bringing their city back up, Yang..." Her voice was shaky. "It isn't right... Damnit it is right!" She flipped the table that she had once held an iron grip on out of rage. She stood there, taking deep breaths, trying and failing to regain her composure.

"I know," I told her, trying to settle her down, "But there's nothing we can do about it know except ride the storm out. We'll take care of Ironwood later."

"You know Ozpin won't let us near him after today." She sounded so sure of that, and she was probably right. "Besides, Ozpin will probably do the deed himself." I chuckled, never taking Ozpin to be the vindictive murderer type.

I sat Ruby down on a chair that was once accompanied by a table. Pulling up one of my own, I sat with her in an attempt to finally bring her down. "Look," I started, "I understand you want to hurt Ironwood for what he's done here. You're right, he is a bastard. But... We can't get to him. We need to worry about getting out of here, first. We can worry about how this city will rebuild and getting back at Ironass later."

She finally started to laugh, "Ironass," I caught her before she could fall out of her chair laughing, "That's a good one, Yang." I started laughing with her. This is something that we've needed.

"Come on," I stood first, offering a hand to Ruby, "We should get back to helping the others." She took my hand and rose up with me. We started walking towards the line. Hopefully we can get out of this hell-hole soon.

This place is bumming me out.

* * *

><p>Blake PoV<p>

Yang had followed Ruby as she went on what I'm going to assume to be a rage-filled tangent. I chose not to follow, as the sisters probably would have been better to have some alone time.

I stood, unknowing of what to do. Before me I had Weiss and her Uncle, both mourning over the destruction that has become a once great city. Behind me I have my friends, trying desperately to fix any damage the firestorm may have caused. And somewhere near the Church are Ruby and Yang. So what do I do?

"Blake!" Well, that answers that. I turned to see Velvet calling me, "You think you could help us really quick? We need to fix the line again!"

I sighed, but not because I was asked to do something, but because we _had_ to do it. But I can't dwell on Ironwood's mistake. "Sure," I called back.

After a few minutes of putting some debris over a few holes, I looked to anyone else, seeing if they needed help. Coco, Fox, Jaune and Pyhrra were on the second stories. They had found a fairly launch chunk of... I actually don't know what it is, but it was big enough to make a small bridge between the two buildings that overlooked Church Street. I went up to them, seeing if they needed me for anything.

"Blake," Coco called, "How's Weiss and her uncle?" She asked, actually in a very sincere tone.

"They're uh... They're doing fine, I think..." I answered. Truth be told, I have no idea.

"Hm," Coco thought, "I'm going to go find them, see if I can do anything, maybe get him drunk so he can forget all of this."

I turned to her, rather surprised at her comment. But she met my gaze and reached into a pouch, pulling out a flask. "What you think I'm gonna go on a mission and not have a sure fire way to forget the hell we dive into?" She chuckled. "I actually bring it to help me get to sleep at night. Hopefully it can do some good for him, too."

I nodded, not really sure why I was surprised. I don't think I'd expect anything less from Coco. She left attempting to find Weiss and her uncle. Replacing her were none other than Ruby and Yang. They started working, trying to get everything sealed tight. They were quiet, too quiet...

Did they have a fight?

"Hey, Yang," I asked, "Think you can help me with this?" She nodded and moved over to me, "Hey, what's wrong with Ruby?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah..." She finally recalled, "I think she just needs to let loose some pent up steam, ya know? Everything's gone to the shit in just a few hours and I think it's all taken its toll on her."

"Oh... So, did she?"

"Did she what?" She looked at me quizzically.

"Let loose?"

"Oh, uh... Kinda? I mean, she flipped a table over, but she still wants at it." Yang chuckled a bit, "I think she might hunt down Ironwood when we're done here..."

"She better get in line," I stated, "I think Weiss and her uncle might be up for that, first."

Ruby somehow had gotten behind us, "I can wait a bit." either she's sneaky or I just wasn't paying attention. "So long as I take the shot after Weiss..."

"Wow Ruby," I said, "I don't think I've seen this side of you before..."

"Oh, good!" She said with a smile, "Then you've never seen me when I play poker!" Yang started to laugh. I sat in mild horror. If this is how Ruby is when she gambles... Oh dear lord let me never face her in cards.

After a moment of laughter we looked out into the burning wreckage that was once Directus. I don't think this city will ever be the same... If even fixable... Then... We heard it.

It drew everyone from what they were doing. A roar so loud I swear the earth started shaking again. It was far out, but we could still hear it...

And it was still horrifying.

"Well," Ruby started, "I guess we're not quite done yet."

"Think about it like this, sis," Yang said, patting her on the back, "At least you don't have to wait to let loose some of that anger of yours." I swear I saw the most sadistic smile on Ruby's face. She's beyond the point of pissed off, she's beyond lost her mind.

She's at the point of bloodthirsty vengeance.

"Guys!" We heard Pyrrha call, "Ozpin just called, Ironwood just sent another strike wave! We need to get under, now!"

"And then there's _that_ asshole!" Ruby shouted, pointing to the sky.

"Come on!" Yang said, "Let's get through this. We've only got less than an hour before Ozpin has our pickup ready." Less than an hour...

Huh, how time flies.

It hadn't been long... a short five minute storm, at the most... But the problem wasn't the length of the wave, it was how far it was.

The storm Ironwood sent was out in the forest, not in the city. It was like he was targeting the Grimm. Maybe Ozpin talked some sense into him after all.

"So, now what?" Ruby asked.

"I-I don't know," Yang started, I have no clue what's going on."

It was silent for a moment, then Ruby piped up, "Hey... Where's Weiss? And where's Coco, too?"

"I'll go find them." I volunteered. Mainly so I could get out of that stuffy room we called a 'make-shift bunker'. I left and began the search. Ruby and Yang don't know of Coco's flask. I don't know what either of them would say to it...

Ok, check that. I know what they'd say. Yang would want a couple of swigs and Ruby might take a bit. Normally I wouldn't expect her to, but the way she's been acting lately... Yeah, I would take a bit, too.

I didn't have to look far. I found them sitting near a damaged table. It looked like someone's been rubbing something all over it, because that table has some very deep scratches and some chunks missing from it. Coco and Chill were talking while Weiss was listening intently. No one looked too drunk, so I assumed Coco hadn't given too much.

Or maybe they all shared equally and just aren't feeling it. Doesn't matter.

"Hey, Blake." Weiss called, looking up at me.

"Hey, Ruby's looking for you."

"Who's 'you'? Be specific?" Coco asked.

"All of you. She doesn't need you or anything, she just wants to make sure you're all ok. She hasn't seen you guys since the first storm, is all."

"Tell her we're fine." Chill said rather coldly.

"Uncle, please." Weiss pleaded, "Save it for Ironwood."

"Ah, so you are planning on seeing him after this?" I asked.

"Yes," He said, fists tightening. "I worked my ass off, kissing so many feet and being the best brother to the wife of the world's richest man, just so I could come back here and fix the damage that corruption has done here. Now, one little event goes down and that sick son of a bitch thinks he has the_ right_ to tear ALL of MY work APART?! No... No no no no, dear... Justice demands retribution." He was... actually, he was inspiring. He has a fire lit under him and he wants a fight.

As we sat in silence, digesting his words another roar was hear. This one a lot closer. "Damnit," Coco said, "Didn't Ironwood take them out?"

"Pfft, old shit couldn't hit the broadside of a barn if he was right next to it." Chill said, once again, rather cold. Like, Weiss Schnee first week of school, cold.

Coco got on her Scroll to find out what was going on. I saw the Nurses and doctors in and around the Church begin to board it up. What the hell?

"Hey!" Coco called, "Grab your ass, we got a fight on our hands!" I grabbed Gambol Shroud and followed Coco, Weiss and her uncle close behind. "Those Grimm were lying in and around the city's ruins during that strike. There's thousands out there. And they are beyond pissed. Ironwood just hit a bunch of nests, so anything that survived is going to be coming right to our doorstep."

I looked out, worriedly. The roars of Grimm, the sheer sound of all of them moving towards us... I don't think I have felt this much fear in a long time.

"Well," Chill started, voice cold and unforgiving, "Time to fight."

* * *

><p><strong>Ooohhh, Chills pissed. I honestly had no intention of doing this until I was writing, then I thought "Huh, that'd be pretty badass." <strong>

**So how did I do? I know I didn't leave you with much, but I feel as though I covered some importants: Chill & Weiss, Ruby & Yang, got some Blake love in there, and Coco for sheer principal. Also, yes Coco has a flask. For those of you who don't know what a flask is, it is something you carry drinks in. In this case (and most cases,) Coco has booze in it. Not strong booze, but booze. **

**Next chapter it's all kicking off and I'm going to make that a 3rd person chapter. It would be easier for me as the writer to write it and I feel for you as the reader to read it. At appropriate times, I will trade off from person to person in terms of PoV, but that's about it.**

**That's it for me, for right now anyway. I'll see you all soon over at Amnesia. Hope you enjoyed! Happy New Year!**


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